GILROY
– As of midnight Christmas Day, Santa Clara County’s law
enforcement agencies have arrested 528 people driving under the
influence of alcohol at the halfway point of its
”
Avoid the 13
”
holiday anti-drunk driving campaign.
GILROY – As of midnight Christmas Day, Santa Clara County’s law enforcement agencies have arrested 528 people driving under the influence of alcohol at the halfway point of its “Avoid the 13” holiday anti-drunk driving campaign.
“We’re ahead of last year by about 50 (DUIs) at this time last year,” said Officer Les Bishop, public affairs officer at the San Jose-based California Highway Patrol office. “Definitely, we’ve got an upward trend.”
Last year’s grand total for a 19-day campaign was 850, he said.
The San Jose Police Department and the CHP have made the most arrests because they are the largest jurisdictions, he said, and Gilroy and Morgan Hill police departments are consistently getting one or two DUIs every night.
The CHP has arrested 16 people for DUIs in the South County Area since this year’s 20-day campaign started on Dec. 13. Avoid the 13 will conclude on Jan. 1, 2003. A total of 15 South Bay law enforcement agencies are participating in the effort.
Six people were arrested in the San Jose area on Christmas Day for driving under the influence, Bishop said.
While the heavy rainstorms at the beginning of the campaign helped to reduce the number of vehicles on streets and highways, the number of daily arrests has been steadily on the rise since the weather cleared and holiday parties began, Bishop said. There have been 18 alcohol-related injury collisions since the campaign began, including one fatality in the northern region of the county, he said.
On Saturday, CHP officers assisted the drivers of two vehicles involved in a rear-end collision on U.S. Highway 101 south of Tully Road in San Jose. One driver suffered major head and neck wounds, while the other was booked into Santa Clara County Jail on suspicion of felony driving under the influence.
Bishop recommends people who drink have designated sober drivers for their vehicles. If no designated driver is available, they should take a cab or bus home or get a motel room or stay at a friend’s house over night.
“They should plan ahead for this before they go out,” Bishop said. The Santa Clara Valley Transportation Authority will continue its annual tradition of providing free rides on New Year’s Eve as well as New Year’s Day. Free service will be offered on all VTA bus and light-rail lines from 7 p.m. on New Year’s Eve until midnight on New Year’s Day.
Call VTA at 321-2300 or 321-2300 for more information.
The legal alcohol limit is .08 percent alcohol in the blood, but people can be arrested for less than this amount if they fail a field sobriety test.
“Our message is, if you’re going to drink, don’t get behind the wheel,” Bishop said.
The CHP is also looking for drivers not wearing seatbelts while driving.
“(Seatbelts) are a really good way to survive an accident,” he said. “Our slogan is, ‘Remember or be remembered.'”
Avoid the 13 is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the Business, Transportation and Housing Agency.
It is one of several such programs held each year throughout the Bay Area. Participating agencies are the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Department, Santa Clara County District Attorney’s Office, California Highway Patrol and the San Jose, Campbell, Milpitas, Gilroy, Morgan Hill, San Jose State University, Santa Clara, Los Gatos-Monte Sereno, Palo Alto, Los Altos, Mountain View, Sunnyvale, and the West Valley/Mission College police departments.
