DUI incidents increase as spring season begins

DUI incidents increase as spring season begins

A string of drunk driving arrests was reported in Oroville this week, and police have called for awareness of the problem.

Oroville’s California Highway Patrol Facebook page announced four different incidents of drunk driving in recent days, prompting a post Tuesday which read “What the heck is going on? Another suspected DUI arrest.”

Officer Ryan Lambert, in charge of Oroville’s Facebook and other public information outreach, said that it wasn’t necessarily uncommon this time of year for DUI incidents to increase, but that he wanted to make people aware of the problem, and consequences.

“When it starts to warm up,” Lambert said, “this is to be expected.” He explained rates of DUI incidents regularly go up in the early spring as people start heading outside for recreational activities that can often involve alcohol.

One of the reported DUI incidents resulted in a 9-year-old girl having to be helicoptered to UC Davis when Richard Virgil Faivre, of Oroville, backed over her leg and body. Lambert said to protect the juvenile victim, names and other identifiers would not be released.

“Just don’t it,” Lambert said about drinking and driving. If you’re caught, “It’s expensive, and you could kill someone, and if you do, you will be charged with murder.”

Josh Cozine can be reached at [email protected] or @joshcozine on Twitter.