#DUI #Checkpoints Helped with incidents and Death Tolls

Newsflash from your Hollywood Attorney:

Efforts to curb drunken driving during the holiday season seem to have paid off, while not so much for those motorists who didn’t play by the rules.

The 2013 multiagency Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown resulted in a significant number of driving under the influence arrests during routine checkpoints and Avoid the 14 saturation patrols over the 20-day period, according to numerous law enforcement agencies.

All numbers are provisional as some agencies have yet to report for the 20-day enforcement period that kicked off locally Dec. 13 and ends tonight at midnight. It’s illegal to drive in California with a blood alcohol content greater than .08.

In Santa Barbara County alone, officers from 12 county law enforcement agencies arrested 93 individuals

for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol since the campaign got underway.

“We think it’s been successful,” Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Sgt. Kevin Huddle said Tuesday about the Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown that netted 92 DUI drivers in 2012.

“We’re on par with last year,” he added. “Our attitude is that it’s good we’re catching them, but it also means people are still drinking and driving.”

Since the start of the campaign, there has been one high-profile, alleged DUI-related traffic collision that resulted in the death of the victim, and days prior to the launch, there was an alleged DUI hit-and-run in downtown Santa Barbara that cost a woman her life.

Former Congressional aide Raymond Victor Morua, 32, has been charged with second-degree murder for the death of 27-year-old Mallory Rae Dies, who was hit Dec. 6 by Morua while the crossing the street. It’s alleged Morua had a blood alcohol content of .17 at the time of the accident.

On Dec. 19, Rebecca Cristal Sandoval, 27, of Lompoc, slammed into the back of Linda Wall’s SUV on Highway 246 near Chumash Casino. Sandoval was allegedly driving under the influence of drugs and has also been charged with second-degree murder in Wall’s death. The retired teacher died from injuries sustained in the multivehicle collision.

“We’re hoping those tragic events help raise public awareness there are severe consequences for drinking driving, and people take personal responsibility to not drink and drive,” Huddle said.

Three holiday checkpoints in Santa Maria in December netted seven arrests of individuals allegedly driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. The seven-hour screenings were held throughout the city on Dec. 14, 20 and 28.

The Lompoc Police Department completed its final DUI and driver’s license checkpoint Friday as part of an enforcement increase that began mid-December and resulted in a reported 29 DUI arrests for the holidays.

Checkpoints took place Dec. 13, 20 and 27. Only one person was arrested for DUI during the screenings. But police have arrested at least 29 people for DUI since

Nov. 26, and officers arrested six drunken drivers in one evening, Lompoc Police Sgt. Chuck Strange said.

In neighboring San Luis Obispo County, eight county law enforcement agencies have arrested 82 individuals for allegedly driving under the influence during the anti-DUI crackdown. During the same 10-day time frame in 2012, officers arrested 91 people. Additionally, there has been one alleged DUI-related collision with injuries in Grover Beach, police said.

Although law enforcement will conclude its Winter Holiday Anti-DUI crackdown tonight at midnight, extra patrols will continue over the weekend in Santa Maria, Guadalupe and Lompoc and areas of San Luis Obispo County, according to police.

From 2007 to 2011, 4,169 people were killed in crashes during December as a result of impaired driving. In California, 505 people were killed during the same time and thousands were seriously injured.

Source... http://www.lompocrecord.com/news/local/crime-and-courts/enforcement-helps-curb-dui-incidents/article_5bb49aec-736f-11e3-9160-001a4bcf887a.html

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