CHP Launches Zero Tolerance DUI Campaign

BAY AREA — California Highway Patrol officials announced Monday an anti-DUI campaign in response to recent crashes, one of them fatal, involving motorists and CHP officers or patrol vehicles.

Through Jan. 31, CHP officers will be out in force on Bay Area highways, looking to apprehend impaired drivers before they injure or kill themselves or other innocent motorists.

As a show of force, all available personnel, including command staff, middle managers, supervisors and officers have committed to proactively patrol all highways with a zero-tolerance approach to drunk or
drugged drivers, CHP officials said.

In the past 28 days, five CHP officers have been struck by other vehicles while they were servicing motorists on freeways. Three of those collisions were DUI-related, CHP officials said.

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On the night of Dec. 24, just before midnight, CHP Officer Andrew Camilleri, 33, died when a speeding red Cadillac hit the back of his patrol vehicle.

The man driving the Cadillac, 22-year-old Mohammed Ali, is believed to have been under the influence of alcohol and marijuana at the time of the crash.

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"The CHP has lost one officer, another is in the hospital with two broken legs, and two others have been sent to the hospital, all because some driver chose to be irresponsible," CHP Golden Gate Division Chief Ernie
Sanchez said in a statement.

"Enough is enough!" Sanchez said.

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— Bay City News; Image by Renee Schiavone, Patch