Like a DUI army, officers from 100 county law enforcement agencies fanned out across Southern California, focused intently on curbing holiday season drunk driving. And the result, announced Monday, was that 456 people were arrested for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs.
The press will remain on through New Year's Day, aimed at preventing DUI crashes and deaths, the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Dept. announced. Thus far, DUI arrests are down for the same three-day period (December 14 through December 16) in 2011, which resulted in 598 DUI arrests.
But already this holiday season, two people in Southern California have died in traffic crashes that somehow involved driving in a chemically-altered state, a press statement by the L.A. County Sheriff's Dept. stated.
"Tragically, there have been two reported deaths attributed to drunk drivers in our area over the weekend, both pedestrians struck by vehicles with drivers allegedly driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol," the news release reported. It went on:
"Over the course of the next several days of the campaign, DUI patrols will be conducted daily with an increase in operations by Friday. All regularly scheduled traffic and patrol officers will focus efforts at stopping and arresting DUI drivers during their normal shifts. Multiple DUI/Driver’s License Checkpoints, Multi Agency DUI Task Force operations and local Roving DUI patrols are all part of this region-wide crackdown during the 19-day Winter Holiday Campaign.
"Police, Sheriff and the CHP encourage all motorists to help make your community safer: Report Drunk Drivers – Call 911! Funding for this program is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. DUI arresarrest data collection will continue through New Year’s Weekend, midnight Sunday, January 1, 2013."
