Law enforcement made more than 20 local drunken driving arrests
during the weekend as they kicked off increased enforcement for the
holidays.
Law enforcement made more than 20 local drunken driving arrests during the weekend as they kicked off increased enforcement for the holidays.
The Gilroy Police Department, Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office and California Highway Patrol set up checkpoints and dedicated patrol cars in hopes of catching intoxicated drivers. The teamwork is part of the annual Avoid the 13 campaign to discourage people from driving under the influence and increase awareness of the dangers of drunken driving by distributing pamphlets.
“It’s about the enforcement and education,” Gilroy Sgt. Jim Gillio said.
On a typical Friday night, all patrol cars would be handling a mix of issues, from traffic enforcement to domestic disputes called in by neighbors, Sgt. Daniel Castañeda said. Last Friday, three out of the seven Gilroy patrol cars on the road were dedicated to traffic enforcement stops.
Officers in these cars were on the lookout for suspicious driver behavior, such as delayed reactions, reckless driving and poorly calculated maneuvers. In addition, these officers stopped people who violated traffic laws to administer sobriety tests.
Throughout Friday and Saturday night, officers could be seen on the side of the road, shining a flashlight on motorists they had pulled out of cars. Officers made the drivers walk straight lines, stand on one leg and move their eyes back and forth, to discern if the person is intoxicated. During the weekend, officers arrested 12 people for driving under the influence, including four people younger than 21 years old, according to the police arrest log.
Police hoped publicizing their activity might scare would-be drunken drivers into calling a taxi or finding a designated driver instead of driving themselves, Gillio said.
“They may see a police car and say, ‘You know what – it’s not worth it for me to drive,’ ” he said.
The holiday season sees higher rates of drunken driving because people go to more parties than they would at any other time of the year, Gillio said.
Whether the seasonal enforcement has any lasting effects is questionable. While checkpoints – such as those on Masten Avenue Friday and Saturday nights that nabbed more than a dozen drunken drivers – have become a staple of the season, there has not been any decrease in drunken driving arrests, California Highway Patrol officer Brad Voyles said.
The annual campaign was started in 1974 and named after the number of law enforcement agencies in the county at the time, according to the organization’s Web site. The program now includes more than 350 law enforcement agencies in 35 counties and spans a 20-day period from Dec. 14 through Jan. 1. As part of the program, the highway patrol in the Gilroy-Hollister area will set up a checkpoint Friday night.
In California in 2006, there were almost 1,600 alcohol-related driving deaths – a 1.6 percent increase from 2005, according to highway patrol figures. In addition, there were about 31,100 alcohol-related driving injuries in 2006 – a 1 percent increase from 2005. In Santa Clara County, 25 people were killed and 1,024 people were injured in alcohol-related accidents last year.
These increases came despite almost 200,000 state drunken driving arrests, according to the highway patrol. Crashes cost the state and its citizens billions of dollars in quality of life losses, cleanup bills, and increased insurance premiums and claims.
“We consistently arrest people for driving under the influence,” Voyles said. “There still is obviously a drinking and driving issue in this area.”
