Countywide Anti-DUI Operation Results in 478 Arrests

RIVERSIDE - A countywide crackdown on drunken and drug-impaired motorists netted 478 arrests in the first 12 days of the operation, authorities reported today.

The end-of-summer Riverside County Avoid the 30 campaign -- named for the number of police agencies involved -- got under way on Aug. 16, with saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints deployed in a number of locations, including Banning, Beaumont, Corona, La Quinta, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Norco, Palm Springs, Perris, Rancho Mirage, Riverside and Temecula.

Through Wednesday, 478 motorists were arrested on suspicion of DUI, compared to 498 arrested during the same phase of last summer's Avoid campaign, according to Riverside police Lt. Mark Rossi, the Avoid coordinator.

Two people were killed and five people were seriously injured in a DUI- related collision in east Moreno Valley on Aug. 18, according to Rossi.

The Avoid crackdown, which continues through Labor Day weekend, is part of a national campaign, ''Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over.''

This weekend, anti-DUI operations are planned in Beaumont, Eastvale, Indio, La Quinta, Lake Elsinore, Moreno Valley, Murrieta, Palm Springs, Riverside and Temecula.

The Avoid campaign will coincide with the CHP's ''Maximum Enforcement Period,'' which gets underway tomorrow night and continues to midnight Monday. During the MEP, all available CHP officers hit the streets to nab intoxicated motorists, speeders and other traffic violators.

During last summer's two-week Avoid campaign, 710 people were arrested on suspicion of DUI, compared to 762 during the same period in 2011.