The Santa Paula Police Department has been awarded a new traffic safety grant for a year-long anti-DUI program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on our roadways. New enforcement measures to combat impaired driving are coming as a result of a recent $49,195 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to Santa Paula. The Santa Paula Police Department is dedicated to keeping our streets safe through both enforcement and education.

Santa Paula Police Chief Steve MacKinnon stated, “This grant will be a major tool in our efforts to stop drunk driving. Our officers are investigating too many incidents where alcohol was a major contributor to injuries and deaths. With this grant we will be able to make Santa Paula safer, while sending the clear message that this community does not tolerate drunk driving.”

The special DUI Enforcement and Awareness grant is to assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol and other drug related collisions. The grant activities will specifically target impaired driving offenders as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving. This will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders, saturation patrols, and court stings targeting DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver licenses who get behind the wheel after leaving court.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2008, over 11,700 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

“Last year in California 1,029 died in alcohol impaired crashes, a 9 percent reduction in deaths from 2007,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help keep that trend going by getting drunk drivers off the roadways of Santa Paula, making it safer for everyone.”

Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.