Ryan Lopez
VENTURA COUNTY — According to Ventura County Sheriff’s Department spokesman Sgt. Carl Patterson, statistics recently released by the California Office of Traffic Safety indicate that “30 percent of drivers in fatal crashes had one or more drugs in their systems,” giving rise to periodic enforcement efforts involving publicized DUI enforcement checkpoint operations throughout many of the state’s law enforcement jurisdictions.
One such effort—well publicized in local media to alert drivers to the time and place of a law enforcement checkpoint—resulted in the arrests of Thousand Oaks residents Jose Fernandez, 27, Jenna Williams, 52, Julianne Culley, 19, and Alix Moise, 24, as well as that of Simi Valley resident 26-year-old Ryan Lopez.
Each was arrested at locations throughout the City of Thousand Oaks where, Patterson reports, there was “the greatest opportunity for achieving drunk and drugged driving deterrence.” Patterson notably indicated in his report to the media that “marijuana can also be impairing” and can result in a DUI arrest.
Along with the aforementioned DUI arrests, six other drivers were cited for “operating a vehicle while unlicensed or suspended.” Remarkably, of those drivers reported caught up in recent DUI checkpoints, the rate of impairment due to impairment by drugs was more than double the rate of those affected by alcohol, with marijuana impairment as the most prevalent intoxicant.
According to Patterson, those cited or arrested for DUI are subject to “jail time, fines, fees, license suspensions and other expenses that can exceed $10,000.”
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