From a press release issued by Infineon Raceway:

Bartenders, Restaurant Owners Get Behind Wheel at Holiday Sobriety Challenge at Infineon Raceway

MOST PEOPLE FAIL DRINKING/DRIVING TEST, INCLUDING TENNIS STAR BRAD GILBERT

SONOMA, Calif. – Notable Bay Area bartenders, restaurant owners and media members were drinking and driving on Friday at Infineon Raceway, all with the blessing of the California Highway Patrol and other law-enforcement agencies.

Thirteen people participated in the 8th annual “Holiday Sobriety Challenge” at Infineon Raceway, a controlled wine and beer tasting experiment that graphically illustrates the dangers of drinking and driving, even at levels well below the legal limit of .08-percent.

The event kicked off the Bay Area Regional Avoid campaign, which will feature 82 separate police actions planned in the nine Bay Area counties during a 17-day law enforcement campaign, which ends on Jan. 1. Enforcement operations include 47 sobriety checkpoints, 31 major-intensity DUI strike teams, task forces and roving patrols, as well as four nights of intense freeway saturation
by the 1,100 officers of the 12 area commands of the CHP. All 125 law enforcement agencies in the nine Bay Area counties participate in the program.

The holiday campaign began on Friday with a press conference at the Holiday Sobriety Challenge at Infineon Raceway. Twenty-six of the sobriety checkpoints will be operational this first weekend (Dec. 17-19).

Of the 13 people who took the Holiday Sobriety Challenge on Friday at Infineon Raceway, only one passed the driving test, further illustrating the dangers of drinking and driving.

“I think this was very educational and I learned a lot that I will pass on to other people,” said Jim Bril, owner of Fior d’Italia Restaurant in San Francisco, who registered a .047 blood-alcohol level. “I thought I’d be able to drive but I did poorly once I got behind the wheel.”

Bril was joined by five other restaurant owners/bartenders, including Bud Schuerman (owner, Town Square in Sonoma); Paul Spadaro (owner, Steiner’s Tavern in Sonoma); Mike DiBenedetti (owner, Amante in San Francisco); Chris Digmon (bar manager, McCovey’s in Walnut Creek); and Mark Elzie (bartender, Shanghai Kelly’s/Northstar Café in San Francisco). Former tennis star Brad Gilbert, who has coached top players like Andre Agassi and Andy Roddick, also took the test.

Testers were given anywhere from one-to-three glasses of wine or beer upon arrival, before submitting to a field of sobriety tests, including a breathalyzer analysis administered by the CHP. Once it was determined participants were at the appropriate level, they were asked to get behind the wheel of an automobile and drive through a pre-determined course at the raceway. All drivers were accompanied by an instructor from the ESPN Russell Racing School, and tests included lane changing, parallel parking, turning radius and speed drills.

“I learned I probably shouldn’t be behind the wheel, that’s for sure,” said Gilbert, a San Rafael resident who registered a .077. “It was an area where I thought I was OK at the level I was but I really wasn’t. I failed that test miserably.” Over the past five years, the Holiday Sobriety Challenge has had a 70-percent fail rate.

Statistics within the Bay Area reflect a need for programs such as the Holiday Sobriety Challenge. Alcohol was involved in 165 collision-related fatalities in the nine Bay Area counties in 2003, up from 162 fatalities in 2002. This marks the fifth consecutive year there has been an increase in fatalities. Statewide, alcohol was involved in 1,445 collision-related fatalities, up from 1,416 in 2002. Figures used have been supplied by the CHP.