Crime & Safety
DUI Arrests Down Throughout Bay Area Over Fourth of July Holiday
Anti-DUI campaign and mid-week holiday may have contributed to reduced arrests.
Bay City News
DUI arrests were down throughout the Bay Area over the Independence Day holiday, authorities said Thursday.
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In San Francisco, police and California Highway Patrol officers
arrested 13 DUI suspects over the two-day period on Tuesday and Wednesday, 25 percent below last year's total of 31 over four days. The decrease may have been due to the holiday falling mid-week
this year, but could also be attributed to the outreach campaign by
authorities to curb drunken driving, said Jan Ford, spokeswoman for Avoid
anti-DUI campaigns coordinated between local law enforcement agencies.
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"It was a mid-week holiday, but we've been sending out a lot of
officers and just not finding as many impaired drivers," Ford said. "I think
that people are getting the message of driving stone-cold sober every single
time."
In Santa Clara County, only 34 people were arrested for DUI over
the two-day period, compared to 81 arrests during the first two days of the
same holiday in 2011, according to county law enforcement officials.
In the North Bay, authorities in Solano County arrested just six
people for drunk driving, compared to nine arrests during the same period
last year.
The state Office of Traffic Safety funds the Avoid campaigns
through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
