SANTA BARBARA COUNTY POLICE AGENCIES SEE 43% DROP IN DUI ARRESTS SO FAR IN AVOID THE 12 CAMPAIGN

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY- December 19th, 2008

DUI arrests in Santa Barbara County have taken a 43 percent dive over last year’s figures as Avoid the 12, the three-week multi-jurisdictional crackdown on impaired drivers, enters its second weekend.??

Handcuffs have been ratcheted around the wrists of 59 DUI suspects since Friday, Dec. 12, compared to 105 last year at this time and 64 two years ago, according to Deputy Win Smith of the Santa Barbara County Sheriff’s Dept., Avoid the 12 coordinator.

“This is a big improvement,” Smith said. “I congratulate the people of the county for having the wisdom to designate a driver or not drink at all before they get behind the wheel.” Figures cover from Dec. 12 to midnight Thursday.

A sobriety checkpoint is set for tonight, (Dec. 19) in Santa Maria from 5 p.m. to 1 a.m. with another in Guadalupe on Saturday from 6 p.m. to 2 a.m. Locations of the checkpoints will not be announced until just before they begin.

Avoid the 12, like all other 41 countywide police crackdowns in the state, is funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.