GILROY
– Champaign glasses, party favors and local police will be out
in full force tonight as Gilroyans count down to 2003.
GILROY – Champaign glasses, party favors and local police will be out in full force tonight as Gilroyans count down to 2003.
Long known as a night to forgive the past and embrace the future, the Gilroy Police Department will be doubling patrols tonight to make sure drunk drivers don’t start the new year by ruining an innocent bystander’s future or their own.
“This is the biggest DUI night of the year,” said GPD Corp. Rosa Quinones. “We want as many officers out on the street as possible to monitor the situation.”
Two extra GPD patrol cars will be roaming the city throughout the night for drunk drivers, and likely adding to the 16 DUI arrests made in Gilroy since Dec. 13.
Fourteen other law agencies throughout the county will also be joining maximum enforcement period tonight as part of the annual holiday “Avoid the 13” anti-drunk driving campaign. Since Dec. 13, 708 DUI arrests, 22 alcohol-related collisions and one fatality have been recorded in Santa Clara County.
In an effort to curve those numbers, Gilroy Police are urging people planning to ring in the new year with cocktails to plan on taking the bus or a cab home. Bracco’s Towing, 6730 Monterey Road, will also be continuing its 13-year tradition of offering free tow rides to people who live in Gilroy who have had too much to drink.
“People get a free ride home and their car is there the next morning,” Quinones said. “It’s a pretty good deal.”
The extra police scheduled to patrol the city tonight will also be keeping an eye out for fireworks and gunshots, Quinones said.
“Every year at midnight somebody shoots a couple of rounds into the air,” Quinones said. “Obviously this is dangerous to others around. If you here shots fired, find cover quick.”
It looks like Mother Nature is planning to cooperate for the New Year countdown as well.
Lingering showers this morning are expected to clear by afternoon and skies will remain partly cloudy and dry well into Thursday morning, according to the National Weather Service. Temperatures are expected to be in the mid-40s tonight with light winds coming out of the northwest to blow in 2003.
