Police Target Drunk Drivers New Year's Eve

While end-of-the-year revelers mumble the lyrics to “Auld Lang Syne” and toot on noisemakers, area police will be spending the holiday weekend making sure no one’s New Year’s is ruined by a drunk driver.

Part of a statewide anti-DUI program, the Sacramento region’s AVOID the Capital 17 brings together officers from 17 area law enforcement agencies to crack down on intoxicated drivers during various holiday seasons.

The area’s winter holiday crackdown began Dec. 16 and will conclude with what is sure to be an active New Year’s weekend.

The local AVOID task force will be conducting a DUI checkpoint in Elk Grove today (Dec. 30), while the Elk Grove Police Department is planning a DUI saturation patrol throughout the city on Saturday, the day of New Year’s Eve, said department spokesman Officer Christopher H. Trim.

As of now, two Elk Grove police officers are slated to be part of that saturation patrol, explained Trim.

The enforcement crackdown last New Year’s weekend resulted in three arrests for driving under the influence in Elk Grove, Trim added.

Across Sacramento County, there were 130 such arrests during a three-day span starting Friday, Dec. 31, 2010, and ending Sunday, Jan. 2, 2011, according to data from the California AVOID website.

As of Wednesday, this year’s winter holiday campaign has already resulted in 243 individual arrests for driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol in Sacramento County, compared with 289 DUI arrests over a similar 13-day span last year, a news release stated.

Over the Christmas weekend, three people were arrested in Elk Grove for driving under the influence. Around 1 a.m. Christmas Day, police arrested Lao Vang, 25, at his Elk Grove residence after he allegedly left the scene of an accident. Vang is believed to have smashed his car into a concrete wall in the 10400 block of Hite Circle, and then driven away. Police found the damaged vehicle unoccupied a short distance from the accident scene and tracked the registered owner, Vang, to the address on record. Upon contact, Vang displayed objective signs of impairment, police reports say. Officers were able to link Vang to the accident through investigative means.

The day before, 35-year-old Quang Ngo of Sacramento was discovered passed out in the driver’s seat of a running vehicle that was parked at the intersection of Hawley Way and Toad Hollow Way. Ngo was arrested after displaying signs of intoxication and performing poorly on field sobriety tests, police reports say.

There were also two DUI arrests on Wednesday in the city and three on Thursday.

There were zero fatal DUI collisions in the county during last year’s winter holiday campaign.