Statistics show the month of May generally records some of the
highest annual incident rates of drinking and driving
– and that’s why the California Highway Patrol will begin
working extra hours this week to patrol for drunk drivers.
Collisions in which alcohol was a factor have increased for past three years in Santa Clara County
GILROY – Statistics show the month of May generally records some of the highest annual incident rates of drinking and driving – and that’s why the California Highway Patrol will begin working extra hours this week to patrol for drunk drivers.
Beginning Thursday, the Hollister-Gilroy bureau of the CHP will start deploying extra officers at strategic times in order to seek out impaired drivers, according to CHP spokeswoman Terry Mayes.
“Schools are letting out, people are graduating and starting to take their summer vacations,” Mayes said. “For all these reasons we see the incidents of drinking and driving increase at this time of year along with the number of extra miles people are driving.”
Officers from the Hollister-Gilroy CHP office will put in a total of 226 overtime hours starting Thursday and going until the end of the summer to patrol for drunk drivers. The overtime is being paid for by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
San Benito County, more specifically the city of Hollister, has recorded some of the highest rates of drinking-related vehicle accidents in the state during the last five years, which is one of the major reasons the local CHP office was awarded the grant to pay for the extra patrols by the COTS, Mayes said.
The local CHP currently has 20 extra shifts scheduled that will place two to four extra officers on patrol around local state highways and unincorporated South Valley roads through September.
The rate of South County collisions in which alcohol was the primary factor has climbed steadily during the past three years, Mayes said.
