The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has awarded the Roseville Police Department a $100,000 grant to combat DUI- and drug impaired driving. Funding for the grant comes from the Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. The grant kicked off October 1 and will run through September 30, 2009, providing overtime and equipment for sobriety checkpoints, DUI saturation patrols and DUI warrant sweeps.
According to the Roseville Police Chief Mike Blair, “Roseville is a safer place to drive because of OTS’s continuing support. Fewer people are being injured in traffic collisions. But we are still very concerned about impaired driving, and we’re strongly committed to combating DUI through aggressive enforcement and education.”
Over the past few years (specifically between 2003 and 2007), total fatalities and injury collisions have decreased seven percent, even while the over all population of the city has increased 14%.
Despite the decrease in fatalities and injury collisions, alcohol and drug-impaired driving is still a major problem locally. DUI-related collisions have increased four percent from 2003 to 2007, and 923 suspected drunk drivers have been arrested in 2007, a 52% rise from 2003. In this same five year period, six people were killed and 276 were injured by drunken drivers. The support of City Council and supplemental funding from the Office of Traffic Safety will help Roseville Police battle the problem with full time DUI enforcement officers, frequents sobriety checkpoints, special DUI patrols, and educational programs, such as holding actual DUI trials on high school campuses, to combat the problem.
“Impaired driving is a serious crime that kills and injures thousands every year in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help get drunk drivers off the roadways of Roseville, making it safer for everyone.”