Every available CHP officer, including those in Sonoma County, will be on patrol for the long Christmas holiday weekend, looking particularly for drunken drivers.

Called the “Maximum Enforcement Period,” it’s one of several the CHP holds during the year to get drunks off the road during certain holidays and to try to ensure everyone gets to their home or relative’s home safely. This weekend’s stepped up traffic enforcement starts at 6 p.m. Friday and ends at 11:59 p.m. Christmas Day.

The CHP effort is in addition to the holiday anti-DUI crackdown under way by Sonoma County’s Avoid the 13 task force, in which all of the county’s police agencies participate. That campaign goes through Jan. 1.

During last year’s Christmas weekend, 14 people were killed in collisions across the state, and the CHP arrested 980 suspected DUIs.

The CHP will hold another maximum enforcement program for the New Year’s weekend.

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