By Shari Kaplan
For the second year in a row and the fourth time in the 23-year history of the Avoid the 13 campaign, no one died as a result of drunken driving during this year's 20-day crackdown, which lasted from Dec. 13 through New Year's Eve.
"We are elated. All of the officers' hard work of stopping cars in the cold and dark and rain paid off," said Jan Ford, public information director for Avoid the 13 and San Mateo County's six-year-old spin-off campaign, Avoid the 23.
Over the course of this year's December campaign, Los Gatos police made 26 DUI arrests, compared to 43 arrests last year. They made no arrests on Christmas Eve, three on Christmas Day and none on either New Year's Eve or Day.
In Santa Clara County as a whole, 1,137 drunk drivers were arrested by city police, sheriff's deputies and local units of the California Highway Patrol during the 20 days. Last year saw 908 arrests; the 25 percent increase this year is due to the 404 arrests in San Jose, the county's largest city. There were 53 alcohol-related accidents, the second-best statistic in 23 years.
Christmas Eve and Day saw 37 and 32 arrests in this county, respectively, with 51 and 50 arrests occurring respectively on New Year's Eve and Day.
In San Mateo County, home of Avoid the 23, arrests were down 23 percent, standing at 390 compared to last year's 508. There were 11 alcohol-related accidents, a record low.
Police attribute the success of the Avoid the 13/Avoid the 23 campaigns to several factors, including multiple sobriety checkpoints, several nights of high-intensity strike teams and increased numbers of patrols throughout the holidays, along with good public relations.
"Overall, people are getting the message and are becoming more intelligent about their drinking. We made thousands and thousands of car stops and found many designated drivers," said Dennis Wick, Half Moon Bay police chief and Avoid the 23 chairman. "It's getting more difficult to find a drinking driver. Our combined education and enforcement really paid off."
Seventeen law enforcement agencies in Santa Clara County compose Avoid the 13, which derives its name from the original 13 agencies that began it. Twenty-three agencies form San Mateo County's Avoid the 23. The campaigns are sponsored by the police chiefs' associations in each county and are funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety.
This article appeared in the Los Gatos Weekly-Times, January 8, 1997.
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