DUI-related arrests soared over New Year’s weekend, according to statistics gathered by California Highway Patrol officials.
According to the CHP, there were a total of 86 DUI-related arrests in San Diego County from Friday (Dec. 28) at 6:01 p.m. to Tuesday (Jan. 1) at 11:59 p.m.
That number is significantly higher than last year, when the CHP reported a total of 59 DUI arrests in San Diego over the New Year holiday.
As for DUI-related fatalities, the CHP reports one death over the weekend, down from five DUI fatalities in the county in 2011.
Statewide, there were 1,273 DUI arrests across California over the New Year holiday weekend -- compared to 1,270 in 2011. There were 19 DUI-related deaths across the state, six less than reported by the CHP in 2011.
In Santee, 25-year-old Jayme Midland was killed early Saturday morning in a head-on collision with suspected drunk driver April Thompson, 23, who was driving the wrong way on eastbound SR-52 near the Mast Boulevard exit.
Thompson's Chevy 2500 pickup truck slammed into Midland’s 1972 Volkswagen Beetle, and Midland was pronounced dead at the scene.
Local
In a separate incident on Sunday morning, on-duty SDPD officer Travis Betley, 24, was seriously injured when a suspected drunk driver T-boned his patrol car on westbound Mission Gorge Road at the northbound State Route 125 intersection in Santee.
According to SDPD Assistant Chief Boyd Long, Betley sustained broken leg bones and internal injuries in the DUI-related collision. Long said Betley has months of recovery ahead and it could take an entire year before he returns to work.
