CHP'S maximum enforcement period underway

FRESNO, Calif. (KFSN) -- An impaired driver gave a baby and her family a jumpstart to Christmas morning.

"This is Avery. Her first Christmas definitely started early with all the noise and commotion," Avery's mom, Goldie Corgiat, said.

When at 6 a.m. Corgiat and her husband went outside to see what was the matter, they discovered their parked minivan had been smashed. The driver of the car that hit it had fallen asleep, under the influence of pain pills.

"Oh no he had the pill bottles out and everything, but he didn't seem very coherent when he was speaking. He ended up going to the hospital in an ambulance," Corgiat said.

California Highway Patrol Officer Vance Wedeking says drivers impaired by prescription drugs are becoming a real problem.

"The fact that people will take what the doctor gives them on a normal basis to get through their issue and they start driving a car, and it doesn't take but maybe just one or two pills -- a regular dose can put you under the influence," Wedeking said.

During the holiday season, the Highway Patrol is hoping to keep drug-impaired and alcohol-impaired drivers off the roads. They've been responsible for nearly 400 accidents in the Highway Patrol's Fresno District so far this year.

"We haven't seen a year this bad in probably five or six years," Wedeking said.

Nationwide the number of drunk and impaired-driving accidents increase dramatically during the holiday season. Nationwide nearly 50 people a day are killed by impaired drivers between Christmas and New Year's. That's about 20 more deaths per day than average. Wedeking says that's why it's so important to get them off the highways now.

"Between the 20th (of December) and the 3rd of January, there's a maximum enforcement period for the Highway Patrol where we have as many units out that we can possibly put on the street, attempting to find impaired drivers," he said.

Fortunately for the Corgiat family, having their vehicle hit by an impaired driver wasn't a catastrophe, but a big inconvenience. They are making plans to get a rental car and hoping the driver who hit them has insurance.