56 DUI arrests over holiday

The AVOID the 13 Sonoma County DUI Task Force announced Tuesday
that officers had arrested 56 drunk drivers countywide during the
four-day Memorial Day weekend.
Seven were injured in five separate DUI crashes—but none were
killed—according to AVOID spokesperson Sergeant Ken Savano. “At the
conclusion of the four-day holiday campaign to reduce alcohol
involved fatal and injury collisions, AVOID the 13 is reporting no
fatal DUI crashes,” he said. “Unfortunately there have been five
DUI injury crashes leaving seven people injured.”
The California Highway Patrol announced Tuesday that among those
arrested was Primitivo Piceno, a 45-year-old Santa Rosa resident
with five prior DUI convictions. On Sunday another motorist
contacted the CHP that Piceno appeared to be driving drunk on
Highway 128.
An officer later pulled him over and asked him to perform field
sobriety tests, but Piceno was apparently so intoxicated that he
fell down and was unable to comply. He was treated at Sutter
Hospital and later booked into jail on charges of felony DUI,
violation of probation and driving on a suspended license.
The AVOID the 13 is a federally funded program designed to
discourage motorists from drinking and driving—and to remove those
who do drive intoxicated with saturation patrols looking
specifically for drunk drivers. Thirteen agencies throughout Sonoma
County participate, including the Sonoma County Sheriff’s
Department, the California Highway Patrol and city departments
including Sebastopol and Healdsburg.