It seemed like a misprint: A random DUI sweep Friday night in central and south Sacramento netted 57 people who were cited on suspicion of driving under the influence.
Seven were on bicycles!
It took the California Highway Patrol just eight hours to round these people up. And the numbers aren't considered an aberration.
This is normal for a CHP sweep in Sacramento on a Friday. That is, if drunk + dangerous could ever be considered normal.
Apparently, it is. Driving and alcohol abuse constitute a plague on the city of Sacramento.
"Why do we have so many drunk drivers?" asked Sacramento Police Chief Rick Braziel. "We've ranked right up there for a long time – we just didn't want to talk about it."
It's way past time. Medical treatment experts agree that people with drinking problems can get better only when they admit the problem.
Can the city of Sacramento admit it has a drinking problem?
According to the state Office of Traffic Safety, Sacramento is the city with the most fatal crashes as well as the most fatal crashes in which alcohol was a factor.
In 2007, more than 4,000 people were injured and 28 people killed on city streets. If you throw in stretches of freeway inside the city limits, the death number goes to 49.
The 2008 numbers aren't expected to improve.
Then on Monday, the CHP released the results of its Friday night DUI sweep.
What's going on here?
Is it the double-digit unemployment? State furloughs? The Kings being the worst team in the NBA?
No. Chris Cochran, a spokesman for OTS, said Sacramento was also the worst city for drunken driving in 2002 – when the area was in a relative boom and the Kings came within a few missed free throws of an NBA title.
Sacramento has been a dubious No. 1 ever since. Braziel concedes that Sac PD's traffic division needs to get bigger, though reinforcements won't come anytime soon in this economy.
Fresno has 71 traffic officers and the best numbers for drunken driving enforcement in California. Sacramento has 22 traffic officers.
But there has to be more at work here. Christy Adams, trauma prevention program coordinator at UC Davis Medical Center, said her hospital system is doing more interventions when DUI cases are brought to the emergency room.
"We're just trying to find ways to decrease it," she said.
Sacramento is not a grid like San Francisco or gridlocked like Los Angeles. There are many gracious places to enjoy a cocktail, beer and wine. Getting from here to there is doable, but all too dangerous.
Dealing with this problem doesn't require prohibition. It starts with public awareness and acknowledgment that, yes, we really do have a problem.
Call The Bee's Marcos Breton, (916) 321-1096.
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