Without warning, a motorcyclist racing faster than 100 mph hit Dicken’s back wheel, knocking him off his vehicle and into Yannizzi. Dickens tried to grab Yannizzi, but was unable to hold on and slid on the asphalt for hundreds of feet.
The motorcyclist who hit Dickens was drinking.
Dickens hurt his back, his head and retired soon after.
“He is still not in good shape,” Yannizzi said. “It’s getting to the point where everyone knows somebody affected by a drunk driver, especially around here.”
With a steady force of four officers working full time against drunken driving and a decade of focusing on the problem, Costa Mesa has been in full stride against intoxicated driving for sometime. But for years, numbers surrounding DUI haven’t reduced.
Arrests have steadily risen as the department’s officers get better equipment and training. Despite that, the number of alcohol-related collisions hasn’t slowed down, with 223 in 2003 rising to 288 in 2006, according to Statewide Integrated Traffic Records System.
Injuries from those collisions reached new heights with 161 due to alcohol-related collisions in 2006 compared with 100 in 2003.
Newport Beach has 287 on-sale retail liquor licenses — bars and restaurants — while Costa Mesa has 254. Despite the difference, Costa Mesa’s alcohol-related collisions, arrests and injuries far exceed Newport’s. The problem can be partly attributed to the many out-of-towners who pass through Costa Mesa to get to popular drinking locations in Newport Beach.
But the higher figures don’t necessarily mean Costa Mesa has a problem worse than Newport Beach’s.
