Avoid the 12 Makes One Arrest at Last Night's Solvang Checkpoint, Continues 21-Day Crackdown

Solvang- December 27th, 2008

111 in handcuffs so far for a 38% drop

Even though it was 29 degrees out and a DUI suspect’s mother called them “very mean” to arrest her daughter on her birthday, nine police officers and sheriff’s deputies from Avoid the 12 screened 905 vehicles at a checkpoint in Solvang last night (Friday, Dec. 26.)

They cited five unlicensed drivers and impounded the vehicles they were driving for 30 days.

The woman’s arrest was the only one at the checkpoint.

She was returning to her hotel room after wine tasting with her mother, drinking even more wine at dinner and then visiting a local bar. Her blood-alcohol level was half again as high as it needed to be to qualify for an arrest, said Deputy Win Smith of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept., Avoid the 12 coordinator and one of the officers at the checkpoint. She was booked into the Lompoc city jail.

Avoid the 12 has arrested 111 DUI suspects since the three-week campaign began Dec. 12. It ends New Year’s Day, 38 percent below last year’s total. One person has died at the hands of a drunk driver so far in the crackdown.

Arrests by Avoid the 14, a similar crackdown in Ventura County, have dropped by about the same amount, said Commander Martin Meyer of the Oxnard Police Dept., campaign coordinator.

The California Office of Traffic Safety funds Avoid the 12 through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, as it does the 40 other similar campaigns throughout the state.