Saratoga News

Avoid the 13 catches five for driving drunk

By Clarence Cromwell

Handcuffs snapped onto the wrists of five drunken drivers in Saratoga during the holidays, thanks to sheriff's deputies and the county's "Avoid the 13" program.

Avoid the 13 and its twin in San Mateo County, Avoid the 23, are 18-day crackdowns on drunken driving, spanning from Dec. 15 to Jan. 1. For four nights prior to both Christmas and New Year's Eve, law enforcement agencies flooded the roads with police officers and deputies. Some 80 percent of California Highway Patrol officers were on duty at those times.

The first four Saratoga arrests were handled before Christmas. Another driver was arrested Dec. 29 after an accident that left two people injured.

In that accident, a Saratoga resident said she was driving south on Saratoga-Sunnyvale Road and didn't notice soon enough when two cars stopped at a red light at Prospect Road in front of her. Her car hit a stopped car and pushed it into another car.

Both of the other drivers complained of neck injuries, and the woman who didn't stop in time was charged with drunken driving.

Countywide, Avoid the 13 netted 920 arrests of drunken drivers by 17 participating agencies. Of those, 67 were made by the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Department. The county had fewer crashes than ever involving injuries, only 33. The previous record was 36, set in 1993.

For the third time in 22 years, no one in Santa Clara County died in an alcohol-related accident during the holidays.

Avoid the 13 got its name from the number of agencies that originally formed it. Avoid the 23 consists of 23 San Mateo County law enforcement agencies.