Octavio Grado, 28, is being held on suspicion of colliding with oncoming traffic on Sunday, May 3, 2015, in Phoenix, killing two and paralyzing a 4-year-old girl, according to court documents.(Photo: Maricopa County Sheriff's Office)
Statistics released by the Arizona Governor's Office of Highway Safety showed that authorities made fewer DUI arrests in a targeted effort this past Cinco de Mayo weekend than they did last year.
More than 2,000 officers and deputies participated in the statewide driving under the influence task force that began Friday and ended early Wednesday morning.
Authorities made 460 DUI arrests during this year's effort, compared with 531 made during the same period in 2014. Of the statewide arrests, 156 were on suspicion of extreme DUI, meaning the driver was suspected of having a blood-alcohol content of 0.15 percent or greater, according to a statement.
One of those arrests involved Octavio Grado, 28, who crashed his truck Sunday night into oncoming traffic in Phoenix, killing a mother and father and paralyzing their 4-year-old girl, according to police and court documents.
Grado's DUI arrest fell into the extreme category, with a blood-alcohol content of 0.24 percent, court documents showed. The average blood-alcohol content of people arrested during the DUI enforcement was 0.16 percent, the office statement said.
The little girl whose spine was severed in the wreck remained in critical condition on Wednesday, according to Sgt. Trent Crump, a Phoenix police spokesman. A family friend also suffered serious injuries in the crash, Crump said.
Police said Grado had been traveling at an "excessive speed" prior to the collision. Officers working the DUI enforcement issued 194 tickets for excessive speeding, vs. 112 last year. A person driving 20 mph above the posted speed limit in a business or residential area, for example, can be ticketed for excessive speeding.
Grado is being held in a Maricopa County jail on suspicion of second-degree murder and aggravated assault. A judge set his bond at $750,000.
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Source: http://www.azcentral.com/story/news/local/phoenix/2015/05/06/dui-arrests-during-cinco-de-mayo-down-compared-to-2014/70912432/
