Release Date/Time: 10/4/2015 11:45 AM
Incident: STEP Grant Awarded to Salinas PD
Report #: N/A
Date: Sunday, 10/4/2015
Time: 11:44 AM
Location: 222 Lincoln Avenue
The SALINAS POLICE DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GRANT FOR SPECIAL TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT AND CRASH PREVENTION
The Salinas Police Department has been awarded a $112,400 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries. The Salinas Police Department will use the funding as part of the city's ongoing commitment to keep our roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.
In 2014, 10 people were killed in traffic collisions in Salinas and 619 people were injured in 465 injury collisions. There were a total of 1249 collision reports taken by Salinas PD. 'This total is way too high,” said Sergeant Gerry Ross. 'Many of these people suffered very serious injuries. This grant will allow us to hire our best traffic officers on overtime to enforce the state's traffic laws and prevent some of these injuries and deaths.”
After falling dramatically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions has been slowly rising. Particularly alarming are recent increases in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, the growing dangers of distracting technologies, and the emergence of drug-impaired driving as a major problem. This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk driving, speeding and crashes at intersections.
'Overall, California's roadways are among the safest in the nation,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. 'But to meet future mobility, safety, and accessible transportation objectives, we have to reverse this recent trend in order to reach our common goal – zero deaths on our roadways. The Office of Traffic Safety and the Salinas Police Department want to work with everyone to create a culture of traffic safety across Salinas and the state.”
Activities that the grant will fund include:
• DUI saturation patrols
• Motorcycle safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement
• Speed, red light, and stop sign enforcement
• Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders
• Compilation of DUI 'Hot Sheets,” identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders
• Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE)
• Court 'sting” operations to cite individuals driving from DUI court after ignoring their license suspension or revocation Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Release Authorized by: Gerard Ross
Telephone: (831) 758-7250