County's DUI crackdown continues

The second weekend of Avoid the 14, Ventura County law enforcement's cooperative antiDUI campaign, will see a sobriety checkpoint in Fillmore from 8 p.m. to midnight Fri., Dec. 38.

DUI arrests have jumped by 46 percent over last year's total so far in the 19-day holiday crackdown that began Dec. 14. Totals stand at 111, compared with 76. DUI suspects have killed no one in the county since the campaign began.

California Highway Patrol officers ran their Christmas weekend maximum enforcement period from Dec. 21 through Christmas Day. Nearly all available officers were assigned to freeway patrol, said Capt. Cliff Williams of the Moorpark CHP.

"The CHP and all police agencies recognize that the holiday season has traditionally been a time in which we have an increased number of drinking drivers on the road due to the high number of holiday parties," Williams said. "We all want to maintain the happiest of holiday seasons by apprehending these dangerously impaired drivers before they can ruin their own holidays or someone else's."

All 40 countywide crackdowns are funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.