The State : 13 Die in Holiday Traffic

Thirteen people were killed in California traffic accidents during the 30-hour Christmas holiday, and 581 people were arrested for investigation of drunk driving, the California Highway Patrol said. The generally low figures for accidents and arrests from 6 p.m. Tuesday to midnight Wednesday were attributed to the mid-week Christmas holiday, CHP spokeswoman Susan Cowan-Scott said. “It’s actually not a whole bunch,” she said, of the 581 drunk-driving arrests statewide. “In the first 12 hours last year, we had 887 arrests. It was a weekend holiday last year.” The last time there was a 30-hour Christmas reporting period was in 1974. “That year 15 people died,” she said. “We had the oil crisis then and a lot fewer drivers then, too.”