‘Avoid the 13’ DUI Arrests Up Significantly over Last Year

The Summer/Labor Day National Anti-DUI Campaign has been in full force since Aug. 19 but has ramped up for the Labor Day weekend with the "Avoid the 13" program, featuring special checkpoints for intoxicated drivers and Friday patrols around Santa Clara County.

From Aug. 19 through midnight Friday night, 13 law enforcement agencies throughout Santa Clara County arrested a grand total of 322 people on suspicion of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs. That is a significant increase from the same 14-day period in 2010, in which 287 arrests were made.

So far, there have been no DUI-related deaths since the start of this year’s campaign. There were no deaths during last year’s campaign.

Sgt. Troy Smith of the Santa Clara County Sheriff’s Office said there will be DUI checkpoints in unincorporated San Jose and the city of San Jose Saturday night. Extra “DUI saturation patrols” are planned for the cities of Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Altos Hills, San Jose, Los Gatos, Morgan Hill, Milpitas, Palo Alto, Santa Clara and Sunnyvale, as well as the San Jose State University campus, through Sunday. For Labor Day, there will be extra DUI saturation patrols deployed in the cities of Milpitas, Sunnyvale and Santa Clara, and again at San Jose State University.

Smith said all regularly scheduled traffic and patrol officers will focus their efforts at stopping and arresting DUI drivers during their normal shifts. The California Highway Patrol will send out all available officers onto the freeways and county roads during its “maximum enforcement period,” which began at 6 p.m. on Friday.

The following is a breakdown of arrests made in each city between 12:01 a.m. and 11:59 p.m. Friday.

Campbell: 0

California Highway Patrol, Gilroy: Data not received as of publication time

Gilroy police: 0

CHP – San Jose: 6*

San Jose police: 9

Los Altos police: 0

Los Gatos police: 4

Milpitas police: 0

Mountain View police: 1

Palo Alto police: 3

Santa Clara Sheriff's Department: 1**

Sunnyvale police: 2

San Jose State security: 0

*The San Jose CHP office, which covers a wide area south of Mountain View and north of Gilroy, did not report the specific locations of the arrests.

**The Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department, which covers Cupertino, Saratoga, Los Altos Hills and unincorporated parts of the county, also did not report the location of the arrest on Friday.