The California Office of Traffic Safety has awarded the Los Angeles County Sheriff's Department over $1.4 million in safety traffic grant funds.
The special DUI checkpoint grant will be used for preventing deaths and injuries on the roadways as a result of alcohol or drug-related collisions, Sheriff's officials said in a press release.
In 2010, 791 people were killed by drug or alcohol-impaired drivers, while 24,000 were injured by similar drivers. Alcohol-related collisions drop by an average of 20 percent with highly-publicized checkpoints, authorities said.
“DUI checkpoints have been an essential part of the phenomenal reduction in DUI deaths that we witnessed from 2006 to 2010 in California,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “But since the tragedy of DUI accounts for nearly one third of traffic fatalities, The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department needs the high visibility enforcement and public awareness that this grant will provide.”
