Countywide crackdown on DUI drivers nabs 287 suspects
Camarillo reports nine arrests

In a winter holiday crackdown brightened by a zero in the DUI fatality column, police officers, sheriff's deputies and California Highway Patrol officers from Avoid the 14 campaign in Ventura County brought in 287 DUI suspects.

"We are very pleased with the number of DUI arrests our Avoid the 14 officers made over the holidays," said Senior Officer Humberto Jimenez of the Oxnard Police Department, campaign coordinator.

"We prevented a great many deaths and injuries by taking these dangerous drivers off the road," Jimenez said

The Ventura office of the CHP brought in 135 of those arrests, followed by 48 for the Oxnard Police, 30 for police in Thousand Oaks, 23 for the city of Ventura, 20 for Simi Valley, nine for Camarillo, six for Moorpark and Santa Paula, four for Fillmore and Port Hueneme and two for Ojai.

The countywide crackdown began Dec. 15 and ended at midnight New Year's Day. Increased DUI enforcement included sobriety checkpoints, in-city DUI patrols, CHP freeway saturation and emphasis on DUI enforcement with officers on regular beats.

The California Office of Traffic Safety funds Avoid the 14 and all the 35 similar countywide efforts in the state.