No Fatalities In Mother Lode Over Holiday Weekend

Sonora, CA – While the Mother Lode saw no deadly crashes over the holiday weekend, one killer trend has the Calaveras CHP concerned.

Tuolumne and Calaveras county CHP units report that it was a relatively quiet Maximum Enforcement Period for this year’s Memorial Day weekend. Tuolumne only posted seven DUI arrests and no accidents. San Andreas Unit Officer Toby Butzler gave this breakdown of the incidents in Calaveras, “We arrested three people for DUI’s. One of them was out of a major injury collision. Officers responded to seven collisions, one of the collisions resulted in minor injuries, one of the collisions resulted in major injuries and the other five collisions were non-injury. They wrote 32 tickets, most of which were for speeding or mechanical or registration violations, but we were definitely out there looking for speeders.”

One disturbing statistic in Calaveras County is the number of fatalities. Already this year officers have handled four fatality collisions where six individuals were killed. Butzler hopes that trend will reverse. He reminds drivers to put down their cell phones and focus on driving; always wear seatbelts properly and designate a sober driver — it could save a life.