It was a relatively normal weekend for local authorities despite
the three-day Fourth of July weekend.
It was a relatively normal weekend for local authorities despite the three-day Fourth of July weekend.
Police had fewer driving under the influence arrests than previous years, but did have an increase in overall arrests. Police Capt. David Westrick did not have last year’s number of arrests, but said the 2011 total of 17 was an increase.
The department also responded to one serious DUI accident that sent three people to the hospital.
“Overall, it was pretty quiet,” Westrick said. “It was a normal weekend.”
The two-vehicle accident occurred around 11:30 p.m. Saturday when police believe a black Mazda pickup truck driven by Hollister resident Salvador Salinas, 45, failed to stop at a stop sign at the intersection of Hillcrest Road and Memorial Drive.
After passing through the stop sign, police allege Salinas hit a gold Dodge Neon with two female Hollister residents inside, Westrick said. The 38-year-old driver and the juvenile passenger complained of neck pained and were transported to Hazel Hawkins Memorial Hospital.
Salinas suffered head trauma and was flown to a Bay Area hospital, Westrick said. Salinas was later found to be under the influence of alcohol, police allege.
Officers arrested an additional five other people accused of drunken driving over the three-day weekend, but nobody was arrested during the department’s DUI checkpoint Friday at San Felipe Road near the Highway 25 intersection.
“For us that shows a couple of things,” Westrick said. “People are finding out about it or there is a little bit more compliance.”
Officers did issue 16 citations for suspended or unlicensed drivers during the checkpoint.
“It was a pretty safe weekend for us and everybody,” Westrick said. “There wasn’t anything crazy going on, which was nice.”
Overall, the police department arrested 17 people for crimes such as obstruction and disorderly conduct, according to the police log. Police did not receive complaints regarding motorcyclists.
Representatives from the San Benito County Sheriff’s Office and the California Highway Patrol did not immediately return calls regarding arrests or accidents over the weekend.
City fire marshal, Capt. Mike O’Connor, spent most of Monday collecting illegal fireworks but the number of violations continued to show a decreasing trend, he said. O’Connor collected nearly 40 pounds of illegal fireworks over the weekend, a large drop-off from just a few years ago.
“That is not a lot,” he said. “Normally we collected 100 to 200 pounds of them.”
O’Connor said investigators were limited this year with only two people actively searching and responding to calls of illegal fireworks. Normally there is up to eight people collecting the fireworks.
Despite the loss in manpower, O’Connor thinks the decrease is also attributed to fewer people using the illegal fireworks.
“We believe a lot of people in Hollister have stopped the use of illegals,” he said.
