Numbers were down this year for the county
’s annual “Avoid the 13” holiday campaign designed to make the
streets safer by targeting drivers under the influence of alcohol
or drugs. Morgan Hill Police made a total of 17 arrests during the
campaign, which kicked off Dec. 17 and continued through Jan.
2.
Numbers were down this year for the county’s annual “Avoid the 13” holiday campaign designed to make the streets safer by targeting drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs. Morgan Hill Police made a total of 17 arrests during the campaign, which kicked off Dec. 17 and continued through Jan. 2.
There were no fatal crashes in Morgan Hill during the campaign. Last year, MHPD officers made 36 DUI arrests during last year’s campaign.
The fact that the number of arrests are down can be a positive thing, MHPD Lt. Joe Sampson said. Law enforcement officers hope that the public is getting the important message that drinking and driving is not only illegal but dangerous. And costly – for a first time DUI offense, offenders can shell out between $8,000-12,000.
Sampson said Monday that the quiet week – which netted only two DUI arrests since Thursday – could have something to do with the weather, as the New Year’s Eve/New Year’s Day holiday can be one of the deadliest.
“It was a quiet weekend,” he said Monday. “It may have been that the rain kept everyone in. We didn’t have any big problems. Whatever the reason, we are pleased.”
Sampson said before the weekend that he and other law enforcement officers hoped the public would remember, with the forecast for wet weather, that “alcohol and rain don’t mix.”
“Avoid the 13” is named after the original 13 agencies that participated. In south Santa Clara County, participating law enforcement agencies included MHPD, Gilroy Police, CHP, Santa County Sheriff’s Office and San Jose Police.
The CHP arrested 34 drunken drivers in the Morgan Hill/Gilroy/Hollister area during this year’s “Avoid the 13” effort, one less than the 2003-04 holiday season. Thirteen of the arrests were made this weekend, compared to nine last year.
There were 15 crashes in the area – down from 18 last year – and two of them were alcohol-related, which is unchanged from 2003-04.
In Santa Clara County, DUI arrests were down sharply from last year: 645, compared to 868. There were three alcohol-related fatalities, however, when there were none last year, according to Vic Heman, Avoid the 13 spokesman.
The CHP, police, and Sheriff’s Office deployed more officers for the 17 days of the campaign and held sobriety checkpoints to deter and catch drunken drivers. Sheriff’s deputies held a checkpoint New Year’s Eve, on Monterey Highway just south of Masten Avenue. The department made seven DUI arrests that night, and 52 during the holiday season.
