CALIFORNIA - Napa gets $125,000 safety grant

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Register staff ,Napa Valley Register

Napa police get $125,000 traffic safety grant
Register staff Napa Valley Register |
Napa Police Department has been awarded a $125,000 grant by the California Office of Traffic Safety to reduce traffic-related deaths and injuries, the city said Thursday.
The grant targets motorcycle safety violators, DUI offenders, drivers with suspended or revoked licenses, red light violators, cell phone users and seatbelt violators, police said.
The grant will pay for DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, special enforcement operations, and court stings to catch DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver licenses who get behind the wheel after leaving court.
In 2011, California had the fewest traffic fatalities since 1944, OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy said in a written statement. “While this is good news, we know that only by keeping the pressure on through enforcement and public awareness can we hope to sustain these declines and save lives.”
Traffic deaths declined statewide by 11.9 percent — from 3,081 people killed in 2009 to 2,715 in 2010. DUI-related deaths, while declining, account for more than 30 percent of all traffic fatalities, police said.
DUI/driver’s license checkpoints are meant to deter impaired driving, police said. Research shows that crashes involving alcohol drop by an average of 20 percent when well-publicized checkpoints are conducted frequently, police said.
For a second year in a row, four motorcycle safety enforcement operations are planned this year, police said. The officers will patrol areas and events where motorcycle crashes and incidents have occurred, police said.
Motorcycle fatalities have finally dropped in California following a decade-long rise in deaths, police said. In 2010, 353 motorcyclists were killed in California, a 37 percent drop from the all-time high in 2008.
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