RIVERSIDE COUNTY SHERIFF’S DEPARTMENT RECEIVES GRANT FOR SPECIAL TRAFFIC ENFORCEMENT AND CRASH PREVENTION IN CONTRACT CITIES

Riverside, CA – The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has been awarded a $1,688,994.00 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for a year-long program of special enforcement and public awareness effort to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries. The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department will use the funding as part of our contract city’s ongoing commitment to keep our roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.

After falling to a ten year low in 2010, the number of persons killed on roadways climbed nearly 17 percent across the state, with 3,429 fatalities in 2015.  Particularly alarming is the rise in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities that now comprise nearly 25 percent of all traffic deaths, along with the dangers associated with the growing number of distracting technologies. This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other traffic safety problems, including drug and alcohol impaired driving, speeding and a wide variety of unsafe and illegal driving.

“Unsafe behaviors account for 94 percent of traffic crashes,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft.  “This grant emphasizes the two most effective ways to change behaviors – education and enforcement.  The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department, with assistance from the Office of Traffic Safety, will use these tools to help keep all contract cities streets serviced by the Sheriff’s Department safe.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Educational presentations
• DUI checkpoints
• DUI saturation patrols
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement
• Motorcycle safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Seat belt and child safety seat 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)

While alcohol remains the worst offender for DUI crashes, Sheriff Sniff supports the new effort from OTS that aims to drive awareness that “DUI Doesn’t Just Mean Booze.”  Prescription medications and marijuana can also be impairing by themselves, or in combination with alcohol, and can result in a DUI arrest.

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.