STAFF REPORTS

Chino – The California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) has awarded the Chino Police Department a $139,280 grant for special enforcement and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries from impaired and distracted driving. The funding is designed for a year and further supports the City’s ongoing commitment to keeping the roadways safe and improve the quality of life through enforcement and education.

“Remember, it’s not worth the risk,” states Chino Police Chief Miles Pruitt, “far too often our citizens are injured, and sometimes killed, as a result of traffic collisions caused by unsafe, impaired or distracted drivers. With the assistance of OTS we will be able to increase our enforcement efforts and hopefully keep more tragedies like these from happening.”

After falling drastically between 2006 and 2010, the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions slightly increased 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 Office of Thrift Supervision Director, Rhonda Craft. “But to meet future mobility, safety and sustainability objectives, we must create safer roadways for all users. The Chino Police Department will be using these and other resources to reach the vision we all share toward zero deaths; every one counts.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Educational Presentations
• DUI Checkpoints
• DUI Saturation Patrols
• Motorcycle Safety Enforcement
• Distracted Driving Enforcement
• Seat Belt and Child Safety Seat Enforcement
• Speed, Red Light and Stop Sign Enforcement
• Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Enforcement
• Warrant Service Operations (targeting multiple DUI offenders)
• Compilation of DUI Hot Sheets (identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders)
• Specialized DUI and Drugged Driving Training, such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE)For additional information regarding traffic enforcement and education programs, contact the Traffic Services Unit at (909) 334.3073.