52 arrested during DUI patrols

<p>Law-enforcement officers from Petaluma and other cities in Sonoma County arrested 52 people in the first four days of the winter holiday DUI campaign.</p><!-- Nothing to do. The paragraph has already been output --><p>The officers arrested 11 drivers on Friday, 15 on Saturday, 21 on Sunday and five on Monday, said Sgt. Ken Savano of the Petaluma Police Department, adding that five additional drivers with outstanding DUI warrants were arrested. Three DUI-related collisions have occurred during the period, injuring four people.</p><p>All of the arrests were made by officers on DUI patrols.</p><p>On Sunday, Angelica Enders, 27, was arrested on North McDowell Boulevard at around 10:25 p.m. when officers found that her blood-alcohol level was .12 percent. The officers learned that she had a 1-year-old child in her vehicle, and had just dropped off another one of her children.</p><p>Petaluma resident Victoria Cook, 42, was arrested on suspicion of DUI after citizens reported seeing her drinking alcohol from a paper bag while shopping at the Plaza North Shopping Center with her three children, ages 11, 9 and 7. Witnesses reported that she was staggering as she walked to her Honda mini van, and was confronted by one of them when she began to use her ignition key to start the vehicle. The witness waited until police arrived, and Cook provided a blood sample, but the results of it won't be known for a few weeks, Savano said.</p><p>On Friday morning at about 12:15 a.m., an officer spotted Jacqueline Byrnes, 48, of Petaluma driving her BMW on East Washington Street, near Highway 101, without any lights on. The officer determined that she had been drinking, and later found that she had a blood-alcohol level of .20, nearly three times the legal limit. </p><p>Byrnes was arrested for DUI on Dec. 19, 2006 and May 23, 2007, and was on probation for both offenses. She was taken to Sonoma County Jail, where her bail was set at $25,000.</p><p>The DUI patrols represented the first operations during the county's participation in a nationwide DUI crackdown that will run through Jan. 3. The Petaluma Police Department is the lead agency for regional DUI-enforcement efforts in the county to reduce alcohol-related fatalities and injuries, as well as raise public awareness about the problems associated with drinking and driving.</p><p>The local agencies, collectively known as AVOID the 13 — Sonoma County, is staffing officers at checkpoints in the county every weekend during the period, and will conduct a multi-agency task force operation. Locations of the checkpoints will not be disclosed to the public, Savano said.</p><p>Law-enforcement agencies also are deploying officers on DUI patrols in every community in the county during the campaign, “Drunk Driving. Over the Limit. Under Arrest.” The California Highway Patrol will staff 80 percent of all available officers during the four-day Christmas and New Year's holiday weekends.</p><p>During the 2008 winter holiday DUI campaign, 176 people were arrested for DUI in Sonoma County, and there were four DUI-related deaths and four DUI-related injuries.</p><p>“We continue to see far too many people suffer debilitating injuries and loss of their loved ones as a result of impaired driving. This careless disregard for human life must stop,” said Chief Dan Fish. “To help ensure that this happens, the Avoid the 13 partners are dedicated to arresting impaired drivers. To help, we ask everyone to report drunk drivers — call 911.”</p><p>The DUI enforcement campaign is funded by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. For more information, visit www.californiaavoid.org and www.Stopimpaireddriving.org. </p><p>(Contact Dan Johnson at dan.johnson@arguscourier.com)</p>