SAN DIEGO -- San Diego County District Attorney Bonnie Dumanis joined about 40 of her counterparts from throughout the state Tuesday in launching a first-of-its-kind coordinated effort to combat drunken driving during the holidays.

Dubbed Make it Home for the Holidays, the campaign will be funded by a $3.3 million grant awarded to the California District Attorneys Association by the Office of Traffic Safety.

"Drunk driving has got to stop," Dumanis said. "And beginning Tuesday, the DAs across the state are united in getting this point across."


California has one of the highest DUI fatality rates in the nation, Dumanis said.

So far this year in San Diego County, prosecutors have charged nearly 11,000 people with driving under the influence, she said.

About 1,000 of those cases were charged as felonies because someone was injured or killed, Dumanis said.

She said the death toll so far this year in San Diego County as a result of DUI-related accidents stands at 16.

"Sixteen innocent people are gone because of someone else's selfish decision to drive while they're drunk," Dumanis said. "And we know the number will increase because, unfortunately, drinking and driving is way too common during this holiday season."

The three-year grant for the OTS will provide for better prosecutorial training statewide to help increase the DUI conviction rate, Dumanis said.

"This grant will allow us to better ensure that the drunk driver who causes serious injury or kills someone will be prosecuted and convicted," Dumanis said. "When a drunk driver kills someone, other lives are destroyed. Every family member, every friend, every loved one is touched by this preventable crime."

Luann Howard, whose 14-year-old nephew, Marchello Howard, was killed by an impaired as he walked along a road two years ago, told reporters that the victim's life was taken in a split second by a repeat DUI offender

"You can't prepare yourself for this," she said.

The defendant was convicted and sentenced to 15 years to life in prison, but the victim's family received a "life sentence," Luann Howard said.

"This guy gets to see his family, spend time with his kids, but we get to go to the cemetery," she said. "How fair is that? It's not."

Howard said drunken driving is a crime that is 100 percent preventable. "So please, if you drink, don't drive," she said. "Save a life. It just might be your own or someone you love."

Dumanis said more needs to be done to increase penalties for first-time drunken drivers. Under current law, a person could be convicted of three misdemeanor DUIs before the crime becomes a felony, she said.

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