Newport Beach PD Clinches $350K Grant for Traffic Safety

From the Newport Beach Police Department:

The Newport Beach Police Department has been awarded a $350,045 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long program of special enforcements and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries.

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The Newport Beach Police Department will use the funding as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to keep our roadways safe and improve the quality of life through both enforcement and education.

“The goal of the Newport Beach Police Department is to continue our partnership with the California Office of Traffic Safety, our community, and other Law Enforcement partners, to reduce impaired driving incidents and injuries. While the number of alcohol-involved accident victims in our city is decreasing, we still have more work to do. The Newport Beach Police Department is committed to using the funds provided through the Office of Traffic Safety to have more officers patrolling our roadways, in an effort to improve traffic safety,” said Lt. Tom Fischbacher.

Statewide, after falling dramatically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions saw slight increases in 2011 and 2012. Particularly worrisome are recent increases in pedestrian and motorcycle fatalities and the dangers of distracting technologies. This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk and drugged driving and speeding.

“California’s roadways are still among the safest in the nation,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “But to meet future mobility, safety, and sustainability objectives, we must create safer roadways for all users. The Newport Beach Police Department will be using these and other resources to reach the vision we all share – Toward zero deaths, every 1 counts.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Bicycle and pedestrian enforcement operations in areas of high bicycle and pedestrian traffic
• Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE)
• DUI Saturation Patrols
• Motorcycle safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Speed, red light and stop sign enforcement
• Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders
• Court “sting” operations to cite individuals driving from court after having their driver’s license suspended or revoked for drunk driving
• Stakeout operations to observe the “worst of the worst” repeat DUI offender probationers with suspended or revoked driver licenses

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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