49 ARRESTED FOR DUI DURING NEW YEARS WEEKEND
154 ARRESTED TOTAL DURING HOLIDAYS 2012
SANTA BARBARA COUNTY - JANUARY 3rd, 2012
154 DUI arrests were made during the 17 day DUI enforcement period, which is one more than last year. Law Enforcement presence throughout the county worked vigilantly to help reduce the number of people driving impaired and also the number of alcohol related collisions.
There were no alcohol related fatalities during this holiday period, which ran from Dec 16th to Jan 1st. However, one fatality that occurred in the City of Santa Maria on January 1st is still under investigation. There were 21 alcohol related traffic collisions throughout the county, with 4 of those causing injury to at least one person.
“We are happy to see that the number of arrests did not increase significantly compared to last year, but it is sad that people continue to drive while impaired. Impaired driving is 100 percent preventable and it is unfortunate these drivers are so selfish that they still chose to drive while impaired, putting all of us at risk,” commented Senior Deputy Jeff Farmer, the AVOID the 12 coordinator.
The New Year’s Weekend resulted in 49 people arrested for suspicion of driving while impaired. One of the arrests was made when a bartender drove into the building where she worked, causing minor damage to the building. Another arrest that was made on the highway involved a driver that was swerving severely and driving on the left hand shoulder.
The 17 day enforcement period included sobriety checkpoints, task force operations, saturation patrols, warrant sweeps and court stings.
DUI related arrests by agency:
Agency |
DUI Arrests |
California Highway Patrol / Santa Maria area |
10 |
California Highway Patrol / Buellton-Solvang area |
10 |
California Highway Patrol / Santa Barbara area |
44 |
Santa Barbara PD |
32 |
Santa Maria PD |
17 |
Santa Barbara SO |
21 |
Lompoc PD |
15 |
Guadalupe PD |
3 |
University of California, Santa Barbara PD |
2 |
‘AVOID the 12’ will kick into high gear, searching for DUI driver’s on Super Bowl Sunday (Feb 5th) and again on St. Patrick’s Day.
‘AVOID the 12’ refers to the number of Law Enforcement agencies in Santa Barbara County that you will avoid being in contacted with should you chose to drive sober.
Funding for ‘AVOID the 12’ comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration.
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