San Diego DUI Lawyers report the holiday season is the worst time of the year for drunk driving tragedies, and that’s why it’s best time for the San Diego Sheriff’s Department to get it’s hands on more than $1 million to fight the problem.
Here in San Diego County on average, drunk driving crashes kill two people every week. Pat Hodgkin from Mothers Against Drunk Driving fights for DUI resources and says the cavalry just showed up.
“Everybody is behind this. Everybody is very excited about this,” Hodgkin said.
She’s talking about a $1.1 million dollar state grant called the AVOID program that the sheriff’s department just landed for the first time ever.
Corporal Jason King with the sheriff’s department says that money over the next three years will pay for 760 deputies to work extra shifts – a total of 6,000 extra hours, for 32 additional DUI checkpoints and 207 saturation patrols.
“Economically this is going to put extra officers and deputies out on the street to actively pursue DUI enforcement,” Cpl. King said.
Sixteen police agencies will team up for the program in cities like Carlsbad, Chula Vista, Coronado, El Cajon, Escondido, La Mesa, National City, Oceanside and San Diego.
That money also means extra patrols at the big drinking events, like opening day at the Del Mar racetrack, St. Patrick’s Day downtown and large gatherings at Qualcomm Stadium.
If you end up in jail on a drunk driving offence it will cost you big these days, with court costs, fines and fees, drunk drivers could be looking at $10, 500.
This weekend alone, that grant money will help the sheriff’s department organize seven DUI checkpoints and saturation patrols across the county.
In other San Diego DUI news from www.SanDiegoDUI.com, Travis Weber pled not guilty to charges ranging from manslaughter to drinking and driving.
The Prosecutor in the case made some disturbing revelations, saying that Weber admitted to investigators that he’d been on a drinking binge for days before he allegedly hit and killed Costa while Costa road on his bike.
The prosecutor said Weber admitted to investigators that he’d blacked out and didn’t remember hitting anything.
The prosecutor said in court “There were no break marks, their was no skid marks.”
The prosecutor was able to get Weber’s bail raised to one million dollars after telling the Judge about Weber’s prior drinking and driving convictions that date back to 1985.
As recently has 2005 he was convicted of drinking and driving with a blood alcohol level of .22 according to the Prosecutor.
Weber allegedly had rear-ended another car just minutes before hitting Costa.
The driver of that car apparently exchanged driver’s license information with Weber and then called 911 giving investigators valuable information in charging Weber with the crimes.
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