San Diego County Sheriff's deputies will be out in force this Super Bowl weekend throughout the county looking for drunken drivers.
The department will deploy an additional 20-vehicle units that will specifically be looking for people driving under the influence. Deputies will also operate a Super Bowl DUI checkpoint in Encinitas on Saturday.
A first time DUI offender can pay up to $10,000 in fines and legal costs.
Officials on Monday urged the public not to drink and drive and to have a designated driver if they planned to drink at a Super Bowl party.
"If you choose not to have a designated driver you're going to be in a lot of trouble," Sheriff Bill Gore said. "You stand a chance of losing your license, you car, you freedom, even your life. More tragically, you could take the life of an innocent victim."
Last year, during Super Bowl weekend, authorities arrested 135 people for driving under the influence. In four cases, people were injured and in one a person died,
Sheriff Sgt. Jason Rothlein said.
To drive the message closer to home, the sheriff's department displayed the wreckage of a fatal collision caused by a 17-year-old drunk driver who ran a red light in Santee on Sept. 20, 2009.
The car belonged to Pamela Marabeas, 53, a radiology technician, who was driving to work when her sports utility vehicle was broadsided by a car speeding at 80 miles per hour near Mission Gorge Road and state Route 125. The drunk driver, who was injured in the accident, had rear-ended another vehicle in La Mesa shortly before the collision that killed Marabeas.
The drunk driver, who was never identified because she was a minor when the accident happened, was sentenced in April to up to 480 days in a youth detention facility.
Marabeas' daughter, Erin Limonchi , said she's working to change sentencing guidelines for underage drivers who seriously injure or kill someone while under the influence.
"It's caused us tremendous pain and loss," she said about losing her mother.
On Monday the daughter mainly wanted to urge the public not to drink and drive, particularly this Super Bowl weekend. "I'm pleading to the public to consider your life and the lives of others before getting behind the wheel while intoxicated."
