Two people died on Los Angeles County freeways and nearly 250 suspected DUI drivers were arrested during the California Highway Patrol’s “maximum enforcement” holiday crackdown that began Friday.
In Los Angeles County, CHP officers arrested 248 motorists on suspicion of drunken driving since Friday night, compared with 228 in the same period a year ago. Statewide, the CHP recorded 18 traffic deaths, down from 22 last year. Drunken driving arrests across the state totalled 1,181 so far, up from 961 last year. two deaths same last year.
"Our goal is to get the DUI driver off the road before they kill or injure innocent victims, other motorists or quite possibly themselves as well," said Sgt. Denise Joslin, a CHP spokeswoman.
In 2009, 10,839 people were killed in alcohol-impaired driving crashes, accounting for nearly one-third of all traffic-related deaths in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
The CDC says that DUI-related enforcement efforts such as sobriety checkpoints have accounted for as much as a 20 percent reduction in DUI crashes.
