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Published on 12/21/1998 All articles from this issue

Los Altos woman, 67, injured in car accident

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By Joanne Griffith Domingue / Town Crier Staff Writer

A 67-year-old Los Altos woman was injured at 5:30 p.m. on Dec. 21 when her car was rear-ended at the corner of Grant Road and Paula Court in Los Altos, police said.

The driver of the car that hit her, a 65-year-old Cupertino man, was arrested on charges of felony drunk driving, said Sgt. Ron Vierra of the Los Altos Police Department.

The impact from the rear-ending caused the injured woman's car to hit a third car, Vierra said. She was taken to Stanford Hospital.

A day earlier, a 17-year-old St. Francis High School student was killed in an accident on Highway 280. The driver of the car in which he was a passenger was charged with vehicular manslaughter because he was allegedly drunk, said Jan Ford, spokeswoman for the county campaign against drinking and driving.

This is the first holiday drinking-driver fatality in four years during the Avoid the 13 campaign, Ford said.

These alcohol-related accidents came just a few days into the 16-day Avoid the 13 campaign.

During a Los Altos checkpoint on Dec. 18, the opening day of the campaign, police screened 659 vehicles at Hawthorne Avenue and San Antonio Road, Vierra said.

With help from Palo Alto and Mountain View police, officers made seven arrests, four of which are credited to Los Altos police, Vierra said.

Since the checkpoint, Los Altos police have made four more DUI arrests, bringing their total to eight, as of Dec. 23.

"We're a little ahead of last year (with arrests)," Vierra said. County-wide arrests are down 27 percent over last year, Ford said.

On Dec. 23, Los Altos officers were part of a North County strike team that focused exclusively on drinking drivers.

Yet to come is the New Year's Eve weekend, a "heavy alcohol" holiday, police said. Police will be out in force.

Last year during the Avoid the 13 program Los Altos officers made 18 arrests.