AVOID The 12 Maxes Out the Enforcement Calendar For New Year's Eve DUI Patrols in Santa Barbara County

SANTA BARBARA COUNTY- DECEMBER 29th, 2009

 
The DUI enforcement calendar in Santa Barbara County is packed with three sobriety checkpoints, freeway saturation by the California Highway Patrol and a task force operation for the New Year’s weekend.

Checkpoints are set for Thursday, Friday and Saturday nights in Santa Maria, with a task force on the books for New Year’s Eve in Santa Barbara, according to Deputy Win Smith of the county sheriff’s department, Avoid the 12 coordinator.

CHP officers from the Santa Barbara, Buellton and Santa Maria squads will flood the freeways from Thursday through Sunday.

Deputies and officers have snapped the handcuffs around the wrists of 118 DUI suspects since the crackdown began on Dec. 18. This total is about level at the same time in the campaign last year, when 115 had been arrested.

In a court DUI sting operation yesterday in Santa Barbara, sheriff’s deputies arrested one man who got into his car and drove away after the judge suspended his license.

Sgt. Tom Walton followed the man on foot from the court to the parking lot at Figueroa and Chapala Streets. Deputy Dan Nelson stopped the car and arrested the man for driving on a suspended license and impounded his car for 30 days.

The California Office of Traffic Safety funds Avoid the 12 through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.