A $140,000 grant is on its way to the Santa Monica Police Department from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on roadways through special enforcement and public awareness efforts.
SMPD Sgt. Jay Moroso said the grant would assist in efforts to deal with traffic safety problems and to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions.
“While traffic deaths from all causes declined by nearly 39 percent between 2006 and 2010 in California, they rose by 2.6 percent in 2011,” Moroso said. “State and federal officials anticipate that figures will show another rise for 2012. DUI deaths remain the largest sector, at nearly 30 percent of traffic fatalities. Recent trends show increases in two new categories – distracted driving and drug-impaired driving.
Activities that the grant will fund include:
- Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE)
- DUI Saturation Patrols
- Motorcycle Safety enforcement operations
- Distracted Driving enforcement operations
- Traffic Enforcement operations, including but not limited to, primary collision factor violations
Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
