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In This Issue...
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Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
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Saving Lives Arresting One Drunk at a Time
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The Mid-County Post > Driving Impaired: The Costs & Consequences
Saving Lives Arresting One Drunk at a Time
The Main Job of the CHP at Night is to Find
the Drunks and Get Them Off the Road
By Mary Bryant
The photo above is pretty shocking. It's even more shocking when you know that the dead bodies of two men are still in the cab of the truck, and that the vehicle has just been pulled onto the pavement.
This was taken the day that Jose Luis Aguirre, 33, ran off the road. His uncle was in the front seat. There were three family members in the rear part of the enclosed Chevy Silverado cab.
According to the survivors, all had been drinking from the night before. Then the five men had started drinking again the next morning. By mid-morning, Aguirre apparently couldn't distinguish between the roadway and the embankment. He was driving on a country road; he missed a curve and found himself on the dirt embankment parallel to the roadway he should have been on.
"He went quite a ways like that until he ran into a tree.
The branch pinned the roof of the truck onto the driver and passenger breaking the seats backwards, wedging the driver and passenger in their seats," said CHP officer Sarah Jackson.
The two men in the front died. The three men in the rear climbed out the back window.
"It is truly amazing the back seat passengers survived," she added.
On Nov. 23, Scotts Valley resident Gary Stewart, 55, was driving on Mt. Hermon Road. A vehicle ahead of Stewart was waiting to make a left-hand turn. Stewart either couldn't stop in time or just plain didn't see the car. He was driving a '96 Toyota Corrolla with his brother in the front passenger seat. The rear-end accident injured three people.
Steward jumped out of his car and tried to escape. He was caught about a half-mile away from the scene. His preliminary field blood alcohol test showed a .22 blood alcohol count, nearly three times the legal limit.
Local CHP officers make upwards of 1,300 DUI arrests each year in Santa Cruz County, investigating another 250 or more collisions in which an impaired driver has been a factor.
The CHP officers keep their stats separate from the four incorporated cities in the county. Another 650 arrests were made last year in area cities.
Statewide in 2008, there were more than 97,000 DUI arrests made by the CHP.
And these statistics only record the impaired drivers who were arrested. Many thousands more got away with driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol. Dozens more were impaired, but arrested for far more serious crimes.
There were also seven fatal accidents in 2008 in Santa Cruz County caused by an impaired driver, along with 1,281 crashes that caused injuries.
You Don't Have to Drink Alcohol to Die in a Wreck
Early this year, in January, Skylar Feather, 18 of Boulder Creek, was driving back from a car date in Bonny Doon. Skylar and his girlfriend had been smoking marijuana.
"Marijuana impairs people just like any other illegal drug or alcohol," Jackson said. "I think they don't believe it impairs them and I think they believe they can't be arrested for it."
The pair was headed back on Felton Empire Road, and Feather was driving dangerously. Not only was he impaired, but he was aggressive on the almost completely dark road. He missed a curve and went 150 feet down the embankment.
It took eight minutes for the first CHP officer to arrive. He started down the hill, following the screams of Feather's girlfriend.
Avery Lewis, 20 of Felton, was pinned into the car with major injuries. An air ambulance was dispatched to a nearby landing zone.
The officer couldn't see Feather until he was almost at the spot where the car came to a stop.
"The driver had been partially ejected, pinned under the car," Jackson said.
Jackson had to tell Feather's mother that her son was deceased.
A Prosecutor's Nightmare
Santa Cruz County Assistant District Attorney Barbara Rizzieri has prosecuted countless cases of DUI, or "driving under the influence." Some were misdemeanors, in which the impaired driver was arrested and didn't cause any harm.
There are also the cases in which impaired drivers killed people.
She is presently prosecuting the case against Sherri Chinn. Chinn is a Santa Cruz transient who was driving south on Highway 1. Before she stopped the white '95 Odyssey minivan she was driving, she had killed two people. "She began driving on the wrong side of the roadway," Jackson said. "She may not have even realized she was on the wrong side of the road."
The first car to see Chinn in the wrong lane swerved to avoid the collision. A motorcyclist was right behind. He didn't see Chinn. He died at the scene.
The man's wife was driving behind him in a BMW. She was also hit, but only suffered minor injuries. The couple's child was in the car.
The second man to die, Christopher Bliss, 56 of Watsonville, was a passenger in Chinn's vehicle. He succumbed to his injuries a few days later in the hospital.
At the scene, in a preliminary field sobriety test, Chinn tested at a .23 percent blood alcohol level.
She had two prior DUI convictions and her license was suspended.
Because of the deaths and because of the prior convictions one in 2004 and another in 2001 - she could be charged with second-degree murder.
Instead, she is waiting prosecution on manslaughter charges with $750,000 in bail and is
facing 15-years-to-life in prison.
But that's not the case that most haunts Rizzieri.
She said she remembers all the ones where people are badly hurt. However, the one that bothered her the most was a Scotts Valley man, Scott Conway.
"He was depressed so he went with a bottle of alcohol to Davenport," Rizzieri said.
At the coast, Conway got drunk. He started home. A young family was also on the road having spent the weekend in Monterey.
Linda Griffin was driving with her husband in the passenger seat and two girls in the back seat.
One was five and the other two years old.
"The fact that [Conway] killed a young mom and her two little girls are going to be raised without their mother will always stick with me," she added.
That and the fact that when the youngest child awoke at Dominican Hospital's emergency room, "there was nobody there for her." Her father and sister had been life-flighted to a trauma center with major injuries.
Last year, on a foggy morning in Scotts Valley, Rizzieri was at a red light. She noticed a car behind her. The woman didn't have her lights on.
She also didn't appear to be slowing. Rizzieri jolted forward to avoid being rear-ended. The woman behind her managed to finally stop her car, looking dazed.
Rizzieri jumped out of her vehicle. Realizing the woman was very drunk, she pulled the keys from the woman's ignition.
"She wasn't reacting," Rizzieri added. "I called the Scotts Valley Police Department."
In preliminary field tests, the woman was tested with a .17 blood alcohol level.
While Rizzieri doesn't suggest anyone do what she did, she does urge drivers to report anything suspicious.
"If you see somebody weaving, call in... If you see somebody leaving a party [after drinking too much], stop them. Get the cab, pay for it."
A Night on the Hill
It's not quite winter, but tonight is a very cold one. CHP officer Shayne Dickson is assigned to patrol Highway 17.
"DUI enforcement is
our primary focus [after dark].
We treat each stop as a DUI investigation," Dickson added.
In Santa Cruz County, CHP officers have an agreement with the Sheriff's Office. Anytime a deputy stops a suspected impaired driver, the CHP will conduct the field sobriety tests.
To catch impaired drivers, the CHP looks for infractions driving too close, driving too fast and in some cases driving too slow. Weaving is another giveaway.
Additionally, CHP vehicles are equipped with sophisticated radar they can get your speed from ahead, behind, opposing traffic and driving with traffic.
Dickson generally won't stop a car unless the driver is exceeding the speed limit by 10 mph. At the top of the summit. However, there are exceptions.
Tonight, he sees a Honda driving slowly in the fast lane. The car moves back and forth in the lane. He's already given out two tickets, but both drivers hadn't been drinking just speeding.
Is the driver impaired? Obviously, a bit. The question is how much. This could just be his first time driving Highway 17.
Recently, Dickson had been called to stop a driver swerving on the road that literally cars had backed up just to avoid being hit. In that case, Dickson pulled behind the suspect. A moment later, another CHP officer arrived. Blocked in, the suspect started to back up. He rammed Dickson twice by accident, before the officers could finally get him stopped.
That suspect had been drinking and smoking marijuana.
Honesty Pays
Dickson stops the Honda and the driver pulls off the road. The man's wife is in the passenger seat and his children in the back. The man looks to be in his 40s, well dressed and well spoken.
The man steps out of the car. He lives in Fremont and is on his way home. He and his wife have been wine tasting, but also had dinner before getting on the road.
Dickson asks dozens of questions, and then administers a variety of field tests stand on one leg, close your eyes and touch the tip of your nose. So far, this suspect is doing OK. He's missed a few.
Then the breathalyzer test is offered, but not required. An arrest can be made on the merits of the field tests alone. The man thinks before he consents.
He blows a .05, under the legal limit of .08. However, had he also not performed sufficiently well on his field tests, he could be cited and arrested. You just have to be impaired.
On Dec. 2, Karl Kauffold, 53 of Hollister hasn't been drinking at 9:30 a.m. when he loses control and crosses into opposing traffic. Instead Kauffold has been taking prescription medicine.
After bouncing off a Ford pickup, Kauffold collides with an Oldsmobile Cutlass on Highway 129, just east of Carlton Road.
The Oldsmobile is driven by a 77-year-old man. His 76-year-old wife is in the passenger seat. She is the one seriously injured and air lifted to a Santa Clara County trauma unit.
Officer Jackson says it is not uncommon for driver's to be impaired by prescription medication.
Even if you are only following your doctor's orders, you can be arrested for being impaired, she added.
[Editor's Note: During this holiday season, The Post will continue to publish a variety of stories on the perils of driving impaired. The first in this series is about police and their stories of arresting impaired drivers, with their efforts this year funded in part by a nearly $500,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The second is a story from Santa Cruz County's main jail, where DUI suspects are processed and kept after arrest. For a complete listing of the stories as they appear, visit us online at www.thepost.us.com.]
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