The Avoid the 13 Campaign runs from now until January 2. There will be dozens of DUI checkpoints throughout the Bay Area and what are called saturation patrols. Officers will be out every night with the sole purpose of looking for drunk drivers.
Today, two Santa Clara County Sherriff Department personnel helped illustrate the dangers of drunk driving. The demonstration took place in the parking lot of Great America.
Deputy Lelica Zazaboi was one of the participants. She drank vodka and cranberry juice and then demonstrated her driving skills in a slow speed exercise. Her blood alcohol was .12. The legal limit is .08. Even driving slow speed with someone in the passenger seat giving her instructions, Deputy Zazaboi ran into three orange cones and at one point thought she was driving forward when she was in reverse.
When she got out of the car she told ABC7 News she thought she had done fine in the driving test, which again illustrates a drunk driver's judgment about their abilities and actions.
Prosecutors warn even first-time offenders face fines of $1,700.
"That doesn't count your driver's license being suspended or cost of the drinking driver program, and you are going to jail," said Santa Clara County District Attorney Dolores Carr.
Last year in California more than a thousand people were killed in drunk driving crashes and more than 28,000 were injured.
