[KHTS] – Almost one person a day in the Santa Clarita Valley gets behind the wheel under the influence and gets arrested for a DUI.
In 2014, there were 290 DUI arrests made by Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies alone, said Sgt. Rich Cohen of the station’s Traffic Unit.
Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station deputies responded to 1,932 traffic collisions in 2014, Cohen said, which resulted in 800 injuries.
File photo
Of those traffic collisions in Santa Clarita, 41 were alcohol involved collisions, said Cohen, and 96 people were injured.
“Alcohol is the oldest drug around,” said Cary Quashen, of Action Family Counseling in Valencia. “But it’s also the deadliest.”
There was one DUI collision in 2014 that ended with one fatality, Cohen said. Dylan Tyler Zimmerman, a 20-year-old Valencia man was killed when his car was hit by an intoxicated driver in February 2014.
Every day, around 30 people in the United States die in motor vehicle collisions that involve an alcohol-impaired driver, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. This amounts to one death every 51 minutes.
The annual cost of alcohol-related crashes totals more than $59 billion, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
“We need to stop fooling ourselves,” Quashen said. “If you think you might have a problem with alcohol, you do.”
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8 Comments
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Thank you for this article.
How about some statistics reflecting how many of those drunk drivers were caught in checkpoints vs. those caught by other means ? That would be very interesting data.
Lots of drunks in SC. Rich and drunk
Hearkbreaking to see this photo again. Not sure why anyone would use Dylan’s accident in this story right before the one year anniversary.
There should have been some more consideration for the family before this was published. The name could have been dropped and a different picture could have been used.
Why? Seriously idiots.
Too much money, sense of entitlement, and nothing constructive to do. And a major lack of respect for others. Can’t wait to leave
-_-
Would like to know what the number of DUI arrests from previous years and if indeed the massive amount of money spent on check points was worth it as a “deterrent” or better spent on saturation patrols?