More Traffic Deaths Bay Area-Wide Over Holiday, But None Reported in Sonoma County

The California Highway Patrol arrested fewer drunken drivers in the Bay Area this Memorial Day weekend than last year, but there were more traffic deaths, CHP officials said.

In the Bay Area, CHP officers from 12 command areas arrested 218 drunken drivers between Friday at 6 p.m. and Monday at midnight, down from 227 arrests in 2010, CHP Sgt. Trent Cross said.

The number of fatalities went up this year in the Bay Area, with two traffic fatalities in 2011 compared to one last year during the holiday weekend, according to Cross.

In many Bay Area counties DUI arrests were down from last year, according to county officials.

San Mateo County officials reported three DUI arrests in the county, down from five arrests in 2010. Like last year, there were no traffic fatalities, according to Daly City police Sgt. David Mackriss.

In Sonoma County, Petaluma police said there were 43 DUI arrests, but no fatal DUI crashes were reported.

Santa Clara County law enforcers arrested 133 people for DUI. In 2010, there were 146 DUI arrests. There were five DUI crashes with three injuries this year, but no deaths were reported, according to the Santa Clara County Sheriff's Office.

Solano County saw a different trend this Memorial Day weekend with more arrests this year than last. There were 27 arrests this year compared to 14 DUI arrests in 2010, according to Vallejo police officials.

Statewide, there were 1,367 DUI arrests this year, also down from 1,541 arrests during Memorial Day weekend in 2010.

There were 24 traffic deaths statewide this year, with six people killed while not wearing a seatbelt. Last year there were 17 traffic fatalities, according to Cross.

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