Countywide : 114 Accused by CHP of Driving Under Influence

The California Highway Patrol said Monday that it had arrested 114 motorists suspected of driving under the influence in Orange County during the first 60 hours of the Memorial Day weekend.

By late Monday afternoon, the CHP in Orange County reported only one freeway fatality over the three-day weekend, one that actually occurred in Los Angeles County. CHP dispatcher Janelle Clemen said in that incident, the driver, who was not identified, was killed in a crash early Saturday while fleeing CHP officers who gave chase after they saw him speed past them on the Garden Grove Freeway. The motorist later took the 605 Interstate north, hit a curb and soared 100 feet before landing on a cluster of trees at the Carson Street exit in Lakewood, according to Clemen.

Two other motorists died in accidents on Orange County surface streets over the long holiday weekend, law enforcement officials said.

Statewide, CHP officials reported that 36 people had died in traffic accidents in the first two days of the holiday, compared to 40 deaths in the same time period last year.

In Orange County, Clemen said she did not know whether the 114 driving-under-the-influence arrests recorded before 6 a.m. Monday had been more or less than the citations issued for the same period during last Memorial Day weekend. That information, she said, would not be available by the CHP until today when the final figures are released.

In neighboring Los Angeles County, CHP officials reported that 605 suspected drunken drivers were arrested in that county by 6 a.m. Monday, compared to 517 last year.

The official reporting period began at 6 p.m. on Friday and ended at midnight Monday.