GILROY
– Local drunk driving arrests this holiday season hovered at
around the same levels as a year ago, showing that last year’s
decline over the year before may not be a fluke.
GILROY – Local drunk driving arrests this holiday season hovered at around the same levels as a year ago, showing that last year’s decline over the year before may not be a fluke.
The Gilroy Police Department made 19 arrests for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs from Dec. 12 through Jan. 2, two less than the 21 DUI arrests made during last year’s annual, countywide Avoid the 13 campaign, which ran from Dec. 13, 2002 through Jan. 2, 2003.
During the 2001/2002 holiday season, Gilroy police made 42 DUI arrests, more than twice this year’s total.
Morgan Hill’s DUIs declined notably this holiday season compared to last. This holiday, Morgan Hill’s police department made 29 DUI arrests after 38 a year ago and 42 the year before.
The California Highway Patrol made 39 DUI arrests in south Santa Clara County during this year’s Avoid the 13 campaign, more than its 34 last year and 33 the year before.
No one died this holiday season due to drunk driving. During the first year of Avoid the 13, in 1973, there were 13 fatal DUI accidents in the county, according to Vic Heman, the Avoid the 13 coordinator with the California Office of Traffic Safety.
Of this year’s 39 CHP DUIs, four involved car crashes, and one person was injured in one of these. Countywide, there were 79 DUI-related collisions, 26 resulting in injury.
Throughout the county, law enforcement officers made 860 DUI arrests during the Avoid the 13 campaign, 50 more than its 810 total the year before and 10 more than in 2001/2002. Sixteen police departments participated this year in Avoid the 13, so named for the 13 law-enforcement agencies originally involved. Fifteen participated a year ago.
The largest single-day DUI total fell on Dec. 21, a Sunday; 106 people were arrested for DUI that day. The second-largest showing was on Dec. 15, a Monday, with 77 arrests, followed by Dec. 28, a Sunday, with 65, and Dec. 19, a Friday, with 64.
The San Jose Police Department made the lion’s share of the county’s DUI arrests, with 318, or 37 percent. The CHP’s San Jose unit added another 168.
The county sheriff’s department’s DUI numbers continued to decline dramatically: 34 this holiday season compared with 44 a year ago and 88 two years ago. This may have been partly because a tight budget prevented the department from putting more officers on the streets and also perhaps because deputy sheriffs are leaving more traffic violations to the CHP and focusing on other crimes.
On average, a Californian convicted of non-accident DUI pays $3,000 in various fines and fees and loses his or her drivers license for a year. The legal blood alcohol limit in the state is .08, which is less than three 12-ounce beers in two hours for a 160-pound male, according to the state.
