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Saturday, October 9, 2010

OHIO: Franklin County DUI Task Force Gets $183K Grant

OFF THE WIRE
http://www2.nbc4i.com/news/2010/oct/04/2/180000-grant-awarded-franklin-county-dui-task-foce-ar-248658 Franklin County DUI Task Force Gets $183K Grant By Alex Mazer Published: October 04, 2010 Updated: October 04, 2010 - 11:15 AM COLUMBUS, Ohio -- The Ohio Department of Public Safety and the Ohio Traffic Safety Office have awarded the Franklin County DUI Task Force $183,286 in federal traffic safety funding for 2011.
"These funds are critical to ensuring that we are doing everything possible to keep Franklin County safe," said Sgt. Carl Hickey, coordinator of the Franklin County DUI task force.
The grant will provide the necessary funding needed to improve safety on Ohio’s roadways by allowing safety partners to focus on priority areas such as restraint use, impaired driving, motorcycle safety and youthful driving.
Crash data shows 4,199 crashes related to impaired driving caused 2,299 injuries and 95 fatalities in Franklin County over the past three-year period of 2007, 2008 and 2009.
The Franklin County DUI Task Force hopes to reduce those numbers by conducting high-visibility enforcement through the use of sobriety checkpoints and overtime DUI patrols.
In the past three years, Ohio’s roadway fatalities have decreased to near record lows. In 2009 there were 1,022 fatalities on Ohio’s roadways, which is down from 1,191 fatalities in 2008 and 1,257 fatalities in 2007.