Valley Greets ’85 With 103 Arrests for Drunk Driving

A task force of 99 Los Angeles police officers patrolling Valley streets on New Year’s Eve had made 103 arrests for drunk driving by 4 a.m. Tuesday, a figure that police said is one of the highest on record.

No alcohol-related traffic fatalities occurred in the Valley New Year’s Eve, said police Sgt. Dennis Zine, supervisor of the Valley’s holiday drunk-driving task force.

Only two of the 103 arrests were on felony charges, both involving minor collisions and injuries.

Zine said the number of arrests was especially high in light of publicity surrounding drinking and driving. Because of the holiday, however, Zine said, he was unable to research previous years’ figures on drunk-driving arrests.

Erratic Drivers Observed

“I can safely say that 103 is one of the highest, if not the highest number of drunk-driving arrests on a New Year’s Eve that the Valley has seen,” said Zine. “I can’t remember when we had that many arrests in one evening.”

From 6 p.m. Monday until 4 a.m. Tuesday, 60 officers on motorcycles and 39 in cars patrolled the streets looking for “anything” that could be taken for erratic driving--weaving, stopping at green lights, traveling without headlights.

Since Nov. 13, 125 motorcycle officers who normally patrol throughout the 2,700 miles of roads in the Valley have been consolidated into one force to concentrate on looking for drunk drivers in areas where there have been a high number of alcohol-related collisions. From Nov. 13 to Dec. 8, in the first month of operation, the task force made 516 drunk driving-related arrests, more than double the number made in the same period in 1983.

On New Year’s Eve, most of the arrests were made between midnight and 3 a.m. By 4 a.m., 50 people were being held in the Van Nuys jail, 22 in the Police Department’s North Hollywood Division lockup, 14 in Foothill Division, 10 in the West Valley Division and 7 in Devonshire Division. Of the 103 arrested, seven were women.

More than half of the arrests were made in the central Van Nuys area in the vicinity of Sepulveda Boulevard and Parthenia Street, Zine said. The Ventura Boulevard strip was relatively quiet, he said.

“We found that there is more transient type of activity in the Van Nuys area, where you have the neighborhood type of bars that lead to bar-hopping,” Zine said. “People at establishments along Ventura Boulevard tended to remain there the whole evening. At 2 a.m., I saw a line at the signal waiting to get on the Ventura Freeway.”

The surge of arrests in the Van Nuys area swamped the jail at the Van Nuys police station, where three extra officers worked through the morning, fingerprinting and booking those charged, said Sgt. J.J. Cerniglia.

Cerniglia said most of those arrested chose to take a breath test to measure their alcohol level, and he produced a three-page list of names and percentage points. A person with a .10 reading is considered to be legally under the influence of alcohol. Several of the tests showed levels of .24 and .27, while others registered .00 and .08. In most cases, a low reading indicated that the person was under the influence of drugs, Cerniglia said.

Drunk Tanks Filled

By about 3 a.m., Cerniglia said, two of the jail’s drunk tanks--a padded room with three benches connected to the wall, a toilet, a sink and three telephones--were at capacity, mainly with those arrested for drunk driving.

About half of those arrested in the New Year’s crackdown were released on personal recognizance, based in part on their ability to produce valid identification and employment records. The others had to come up with $1,000 bail, either in cash or bond.

Cerniglia said 26 people were waiting to be bailed out at 10 a.m. Tuesday.

“People still get into their cars thinking that they are not drunk because they just had a couple of drinks,” Zine said. “It just shows that a lot of intoxicated people didn’t want to take advantage of the free rides home offered in the area.”

But more than 200 did decide they were too drunk to drive home New Year’s Eve and kept 46 Valley Cab drivers on the move into the morning, said George Theriault, operations mangers of the taxi company that had participated in a free-ride program for intoxicated drivers.

“It was pretty horrendous,” Theriault said. “We knew New Year’s Eve would be the heaviest, but we had people calling until 6 a.m.”

The Valley-wide program, paid for by four area beer distributors and Valley Cab, took more than 600 people home during its 12-day operation. The program snagged, however, when many intoxicated people requested long cab rides to homes outside of the Valley, Theriault said.

“During the first five days it got to a point when the service was being abused by people who wanted to be taken to Simi or West L.A.,” he said. “Those are $45 fares.”

A $15 limit was placed on free fares, and anything more than that came out of the intoxicated person’s pocket.

“The bottom line is to stop a drunk from getting into his car,” Theriault said. “Drunks who come by bus can go home by bus. If they walk to the bar, they can walk home from the bar.”