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Date Posted / Updated: Home Press Release Index
RIVERSIDE COUNTY SHERIFF'S DEPARTMENT
Sheriff Stanley Sniff
Lake Elsinore Police Department
PRESS RELEASE
Date/Time Written: October 15, 2009 / 1400 hours Type of Incident: DUI Enforcement and Vehicle Impound Grant Date/Time of Incident: October 15, 2009 – September 30, 2010 Location(s) of Incident: City of Lake Elsinore Reporting Officer: Sergeant Marc Cloutier File Number : N/A LAKE ELSINORE POLICE LAUNCH PROGRAM
TO COMBAT DUI DEATHS AND INJURIESThe Lake Elsinore 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. As a result of the $185,260 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to the Lake Elsinore Police Department, new enforcement measures and equipment will be brought to bear to combat impaired driving. The Lake Elsinore Police Department is dedicated to keeping our streets safe through both enforcement and education.
The Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) 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, driving with suspended or revoked licenses, motorcycle safety, as well as public education on the dangers of impaired driving. This will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, special operations aimed at those who continue to drive with a suspended or revoked licenses, motorcycle safety enforcement operations and putting “hot sheets” into the hands of police officers to help spot repeat DUI offenders with suspended licenses. The grant also provides funding for checkpoint lighting and safety equipment, portable alcohol screening devices and overtime to conduct special enforcement activities.
“Every driver and every motorcyclist must get back to the basics: drive sober, always drive or ride safely, buckle up and we will save lives. It’s just that simple,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help make Lake Elsinore just that much safer of a place to live and work.”
New this year is the addition of three special Motorcycle Safety Enforcement Operations. Motorcycle fatalities have been on the rise in California, increasing 175 percent statewide in the last decade, from 204 killed in 1998 to 560 killed in 2008.
Lake Elsinore Police Officers will be conducting specialized enforcement efforts throughout the course of the next year. Extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas frequented by motorcycles. Officers will be cracking down on traffic violations made by motorcyclists, and other vehicle drivers, that result in far too many motorcycle collisions, injuries and deaths.
Funding for this operation is provided by a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety, through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
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