AVOID nabs 47 drunk drivers

Sonoma County law enforcement arrested 47 drunk drivers in the
opening weekend of the AVOID the 13 Campaign, a countywide effort
to keep drunks off the roads and prevent DUI fatalities.
AVOID the 13 began on Friday, Dec. 18 and will go through the
Christmas and New Years’ holiday weekends before concluding on
Sunday, Jan. 3. The program includes extra police patrols, DUI
checkpoints, media outreach and advertising to reduce the risk of
drunk driving accidents by educating the public and, if needed,
pulling intoxicated drivers off the road.
“DUI is a problem across the country and Sonoma County has been
no exception to the severity of the problem,” said Ken Savano, the
region’s DUI coordinator and a sergeant with the Petaluma Police
Department. “There’s a great working relationship between agencies
throughout the county who all come together to raise awareness
about drunk driving and apprehending motorists who do drive
drunk.”
John Sloat, the Public Information Officer for the California
Highway Patrol, said that extra officers will be on the road every
night looking for anyone who might be driving drunk. “They don’t
take any calls, they just look for violations,” he said. “It’s zero
tolerance right now. If they see a missing license plate or a
damaged taillight they’ll pull the motorist over. The more people
we contact the more DUI drivers we’ll find out there.”
Sloat said drivers should not be confident that they’re OK if
they don’t have a .08 blood-alcohol content when they take the
road. By law, if a driver fails a field sobriety test they can
still be arrested for driving impaired.
Law enforcement agencies held DUI checkpoints in Windsor and
Santa Rosa last weekend, and will staff more checkpoints in the
upcoming two holiday weekends. The times and places have not been
identified so drivers cannot plan to avoid them.
AVOID the 13 is a collaborative enforcement and education effort
between the 13 law enforcement agencies in Sonoma County.  The
Petaluma Police Department serves as the lead agency for the
regional DUI enforcement efforts in Sonoma County to reduce
alcohol-involved fatalities and injuries and raise general public
awareness regarding the problems associated with drinking and
driving.
Participating agencies include Police Departments from the
cities of Cloverdale, Cotati, Healdsburg, Petaluma, Rohnert Park,
Santa Rosa, Sebastopol, Sonoma, Windsor, the Sonoma County
Sheriff’s Department, Sonoma County Probation Department, Sonoma
State University Police Department, Santa Rosa Junior College
Police Department, ABC, MADD, and the California Highway
Patrol.
Grant funded activities include DUI checkpoints, DUI saturation
patrols, DUI Task Force Operations and Warrant/Court Sting
operations for repeat DUI offenders during the Memorial Day, Fourth
of July, August-Labor Day Mobilization, Winter Holiday
Mobilization, and other designated Special Events and holidays with
identified DUI problems.
Sonoma County has not had a single DUI fatality in 2009 during
an AVOID the 13 time period.