Forty one road deaths over holiday weekend in California

The numbers are in from the CHP: 41 people lost their lives on California roads over the holiday weekend, from 6 p.m. Thursday to 11:59 p.m. last night. Twelve of the deaths were in Los Angeles County, including the fiery accident on the Santa Monica Freeway on Sunday morning in which four died when their car hit a bridge pillar and exploded.

CHP spokesman Tom Marshall said 61 motorists died over a comparable time period in 2005, the last time July 4th was over a three-day weekend. Marshall said he could only speculate about the cause of the decrease and that perhaps it had to do with the extra publicity generated about enforcement of the state's new hands-free cellphone laws, which went into effect Tuesday.

"Maybe people weren't driving as fast because of the gas prices," Marshall added.

Arrests made by the CHP for driving under the influence increased this year compared to 2005 -- from 1,600 that year to 1,684.

Marshall said the other CHP division that seemed to post a high number of road deaths was in the San Joaquin Valley, from the Bakersfield area to Fresno. Nine people were killed there over the weekend. That division includes long stretches of the 5 and 99 freeways.

--Steve Hymon