CHP: Driver faces second DUI charge since new year after Santa Rosa arrest

A 6 a.m. alert Sunday to local law enforcement to watch for a possibly drunken driver in a gold Pontiac led to the arrest of a Hayward man - his second suspected such arrest since the new year started, the CHP said Monday.

The alert came from Mendocino County law enforcement and indicated the driver apparently was headed for the Bay Area.

At 6:20 a.m. a CHP officer in Santa Rosa pulled over a southbound gold Pontiac, spotted weaving on Highway 101 near Hearn Avenue, CHP Officer Jon Sloat said in a news release. The license plate matched the one listed on the Mendocino County alert.

Driver Antonio Becerra Jr., 26, had a driving history that including two prior DUI convictions, an arrest on suspicion of DUI in early January and now another such arrest, Sloat said.

Becerra also was arrested on related driver’s license violations and for violating a criminal protective order. The court ordered he stay away from a certain person, whom officers said was a passenger Sunday in his car, Sloat said.

The man was one of several arrested throughout the weekend by CHP officers for cases involving suspected drunken driving.

A Rohnert Park man was arrested Friday after he’d crashed into a big rig on a west county road.

An investigation determined driver Andres Ramos, 24, allowed his eastbound Infinity to drift over double yellow lines into the path of a Peterbilt big rig on Valley Ford Road.

The impact caused major damage to the sedan and put a small hole in the rig’s fuel tank, causing an estimated 40 gallons of diesel fuel to spill.

Driver Ramos told the officer “I have to be honest, I’m under the influence,” Sloat said in a news release. A check of his blood-alcohol percentage showed he was more than twice the legal limit and he was arrested on suspicion of misdemeanor drunken driving.

No one was injured in the crash.