Police officers and sheriff’s deputies in San Mateo County arrested eight drivers for suspected drunken driving on Thursday and Friday, the first half of an Independence Day weekend crackdown.
The numbers compare with 17 arrests in the same 48 hours last year.
No crashes related to drunken driving were reported in the county, according to Diane McCarthy, a management analyst with the Daly City Police Department.
The county’s Avoid the 23 campaign against drunken driving began at 12:01 a.m. Thursday; the numbers represent arrests by officers at checkpoints and on patrol through midnight Friday, although the total doesn’t yet include results from all the participating agencies.
Over the weekend, the California Highway Patrol has all available officers patrolling freeways and county roads, McCarthy reported.
On Saturday officers are setting up a checkpoint in Burlingame to check for drunken drivers and valid driver’s licenses.
Contact Sharon Noguchi at 408-271-3775. Follow her at Twitter.com/noguchionk12.
