Road to Perdition
Fourteen DUIs in One Month
In the past 20 days, 14 DUIs were issued in the City of Santa Barbara, according to the DUI Round-Up issued yesterday by the Santa Barbara Police Department. Three cases were tips from citizens reporting impaired drivers. And two cases followed major collisions, according to the press release. The Round-Up recapped the 14 individual cases, which ranged from disgruntled boyfriends to runaway motorcyclists to 19 year-old girls.
In one case, a police officer turned on his lights to address a broken tail light. The driver — female, age 19 — hesitated and then sped off, crashing and knocking over a corner light pole. She received a felony DUI causing injury, felony evading arrest causing injury, driving on a suspended license, and driving with an open container of alcohol.
In another case, a police officer responded to a collision at Castillo and Micheltorena, when a jeep flipped over, injuring the driver and passenger. The driver of the car that hit the jeep — male, 43 — was a repeating offender for drunk driving and incurred five charges: felony DUI causing injury, DUI after a prior conviction for felony DUI, DUI while on probation for DUI, driving on a suspended license, and driving a vehicle without a required alcohol interlock device.
