It was a very busy, and deadly, Memorial Day weekend for the California Highway Patrol, with officers making nearly 1,000 DUI arrests as of Monday.
CHP made 973 DUI arrests, Lt. Jathan Castaneda told KCRA. They’ve also investigated 17 deadly crashes in which a total of 21 people lost their lives.
The CHP’s Valley Division, which encompasses the greater Sacramento area, saw 96 DUI arrests, and two deadly crashes.
Sadly, there have been 741 DUI arrests by CHP in the first 30 hours of the #MemorialDay2019 MEP. There’s no excuse for driving impaired. Stay Put. Call a cab or ride share co. Arrange for a sober driver in advance. Stop putting your life and the lives of innocent people at risk.
— CHP Headquarters (@CHP_HQ) May 26, 2019
CHP started its maximum enforcement period Friday afternoon, ending it at 11:59 pm Monday.
“There’s no excuse for driving impaired. Stay Put. Call a cab or ride share (company.) Arrange for a sober driver in advance. Stop putting your life and the lives of innocent people at risk,” CHP Headquarters tweeted.
In just the first six hours of the department’s maximum enforcement period, CHP headquarters said there were 346 DUI arrests and at least eight people had been killed in car crashes. After just 30 hours, 741 DUI arrests had been made and at least 18 people had died in collisions across the state.
Officials noted that at least half of those killed were not wearing seat belts.
