HUNTINGTON BEACH, Calif. _ There were 176 people killed or injured in alcohol-related driving incidents in Huntington Beach in 2014.
On the night of Dec. 14 that year, Cheyenne Iglesias, then 18, could have been one of them.
Two-and-a-half years later, Iglesias is thankful that Huntington Beach Police Officer Grant Hasselbach pulled her over. So thankful, in fact, that she recently thanked Hasselbach on Facebook for arresting her.
"I probably would have continued to drive under the influence if I had not been caught," Iglesias wrote in her Facebook post.
Drunken driving has been a persistent problem in Huntington Beach. The city ranked 21st in the state in its population category for all traffic fatalities and injuries in 2014, the latest year for which data is available, but it ranked sixth for alcohol-related traffic fatalities and injuries.
The city topped all California cities its size in the latter category in 2009, 2011, 2012 and 2013.
Hasselbach has made nearly 100 DUI arrests during his three years in Huntington Beach, including 34 in 2016. That year, Huntington Beach police arrested 354 people for DUI.
The city is a potential hotbed for drunk driving. There are a lot of bars downtown, near the sand, and a lot of people visiting the beach for a good time. Also, the 55 Freeway drops people about two miles south, in Newport Beach.
"It's an easy gateway to come to a bar," Hasselbach said.
Iglesias was in Huntington Beach Dec. 14, 2014 to attend a party with friends. After the party, she said, despite having had some drinks, she thought she could make the 1 {-mile drive to her friend's house to stay the night, she said.
"You think you are untouchable," Iglesias said.
But when Hasselbach saw Iglesias' 2003 white Maxima swerve and make wide turns, he said, he suspected Iglesias was driving drunk. In a sobriety test, she tested above .08, the legal limit for adults 21 and older.
Within hours, Iglesias sobered up to reality in a holding cell. She could not tell her mother about her incident for weeks.
"(My mother) did not know what to say," Iglesias said.
Being convicted of a DUI was costly for Iglesias. After pleading guilty, she paid more than $2,000 in court costs and fines and was put on a three-year probation.
That said, at 20, she still drinks _ like many people her age. What she doesn't do, she says, is drink and drive.
"Even if it's just one drink, I always take an Uber now."
Despite the consequences, many of those convicted of a DUI reoffend. According to a 2015 report from the California Department of Motor Vehicles, 36 percent of individuals convicted of a DUI had a second conviction within 10 years of their first offense.
But Patricia Rillera, regional executive director for Mothers Against Drunk Driving Southern California, said DUI can also be a wake-up call.
"Most people have the mentality that this isn't going to happen to me," Rillera said. "Most times, it takes a red flag or some tragedy to get some people's attention."
Iglesias knew high school classmates who died in drunk driving accidents. But they were distant to her, she said, until she got a DUI.
As part of her sentence, she had to meet with MADD members who lost family in drunk driving incidents. The meeting opened her eyes, Iglesias said.
"Getting a DUI was the least of the bad things that could have happened to me from drinking and driving," Iglesias said. "I got let off really easy."
Those experiences led Iglesias to her recent very public thank you of Hasselbach nearly three years after her arrest. When Iglesias saw Hasselbach in a photo on the Huntington Beach Police Department's Facebook page being honored by MADD, she wanted to share her story.
"I was hoping... to have (Hasselbach) see that he affected somebody in a positive way," Iglesias said.
Hasselbach does not have a Facebook account, but Iglesias' post reached him within days. He was surprised.
"As a police officer, you don't get thanked very often," he said.
But Hasselbach also hopes people recognize the ramifications of drunk driving before they get behind the wheel.
As a police officer in San Diego in 2012, Hasselbach was just a few feet from being a victim of a DUI accident, he said. A drunk driver hit Hasselbach's police car as he was escorting another drunk driver, an incident that was captured on video that later went viral.
"There are a lot of Lyft drivers, a lot of Uber drivers and a lot of taxis," Hasselbach said. "If someone chooses not to take one of those and to drive, they are at risk."
