The California Highway Patrol will have all available officers
on patrol during the holiday weekend, searching for anyone driving
under the influence in San Benito County, and revelers heading
north to Santa Clara County may be stopped at the final sobriety
checkpoint of this year’s Avoid the 13 campaign against drunken
driving.
The California Highway Patrol will have all available officers on patrol during the holiday weekend, searching for anyone driving under the influence in San Benito County, and revelers heading north to Santa Clara County may be stopped at the final sobriety checkpoint of this year’s Avoid the 13 campaign against drunken driving.
The Santa Clara County checkpoint will be held tonight on Monterey Highway, just south of Masten Avenue in San Martin, from 10pm to 2am. Avoid the 13 is the annual Santa Clara County program to raise public awareness about the dangers of drinking and driving. It combines the efforts of the county’s 13 law enforcement agencies in existence when the program started and is part of a larger statewide campaign.
The program spans 17 days from Dec. 17 to Jan. 2. It stresses not just the physical danger of drunken driving, but the legal and potentially ruinous financial trouble that follows a DUI arrest.
The state’s zero tolerance law means that if someone under the legal drinking age of 21 has a blood alcohol content of .01 or greater, they immediately lose their license for one year, says the California Highway patrol. An adult convicted DUI offender will have his or her license revoked or suspended for anywhere from 30 days to one year, or up to three years with prior offenses. People convicted of DUI also are likely to be placed on probation or serve jail time, have their car towed and impounded, spend time in treatment programs and perform required community service. The process can end up costing thousands of dollars.
According to figures provided by Detective Rosa Quinones, of the Gilroy Police Department, police in the nine-county Bay Area had made 1,727 DUI arrests through Wednesday. There have been 51 DUI-related accidents and four deaths.
The CHP reported Monday that the Christmas weekend was relatively quiet, with fewer alcohol-related arrests and accidents than previous Christmas weekends.
California has the second-highest alcohol-related fatalities, behind Texas. This state’s 1,445 alcohol-related fatalities accounted for more than 34 percent of all traffic fatalities in 2003, according to statistics from the CHP and the state Attorney General’s Criminal Justice Statistics Center. DUI arrests increased by 3.5 percent last year.
Last year was the fifth consecutive year of increases in alcohol-related fatalities, after more than a decade of decline in California: 1,445 people were killed and 31,337 people injured.
Matt King is a staff writer. Reach him at 408-847-7240 or mk***@gi************.com.
