Santa Barbara County - May 28th, 2008

MEMORIAL DAY WEEKEND ENFORCEMENT RESULTS
57 DUI ARRESTS

- Sheriff's Mounted Unit Assists in 1 DUI Arrest

Five more people were arrested for DUI during the four-day “Avoid the 12” Memorial Day crackdown in Santa Barbara County compared with last year.

Police officers, sheriff’s deputies and California Highway Patrol officers made 57 DUI arrests over the long weekend, up from 52.  Santa Maria police have not yet reported their arrest totals.

Impaired drivers have killed no one over the Memorial Day weekend for the last two years, but there was one alcohol-related injury crash in each year.

One of the arrests came on Sunday when two Sheriff’s deputies patrolling around Lake Cachuma on horseback came upon a car speeding around the park. They stopped it and warned the driver to slow down.


The man asked for directions out of the park and commented that he was heading home to Reseda. Deputies then noticed his DUI symptoms and called the CHP to take him into custody. It turned out to be the man’s birthday, according to Deputy Win Smith of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Office, campaign coordinator.


The enforcement sweep started on Friday, May 23, and ended at midnight last night. It included in-city DUI patrols, a sobriety checkpoint in Lompoc and campaign strike teams along State Route 154 along with CHP freeway saturation. 


Lompoc police cited nine suspended drivers, made one warrant arrest and one DUI arrest and towed the cars of all 11 drivers.

The  teams patrolled on Friday and Sunday nights, stopping 103 cars, conducting 17 DUI investigations and making three arrests of suspected impaired drivers, Smith remarked.

“Avoid the 12” gets its name from the dozen law enforcement agencies in the county. Officers will be out again in force for the Labor Day weekend and for three weeks at the end of the year.

The campaign is funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.