San Mateo Police Awarded $54K Traffic Safety Grant

The San Mateo Police Department has been awarded a $54,172 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety for a year-long program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on city roadways through special enforcement and public awareness efforts. 

"Unfortunately our community has seen an increase in pedestrian and bicycle accidents," San Mateo Police Chief Susan Manheimer said in a statement.

"With this grant we are going to educate and engage our community to enhance traffic safety and obey the rules of the road to help us save lives and prevent needless injuries," she said.

The grant will aid in the city’s ongoing effort to improve traffic safety and the quality of life. It will assist in efforts to deal with traffic safety problems and to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions.

While traffic deaths from all causes declined by nearly 39 percent between 2006 and 2010 in California, state and federal officials anticipate that figures will show a slight rise in 2011 and 2012.

DUI deaths remain the largest sector, at nearly 30 percent of traffic fatalities. Recent trends show increases in two new categories – distracted driving and drug-impaired driving. 

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Facilitated community meetings on traffic safety, focused on pedestrians and our aging community
• 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
• Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement
• Speed, red light and stop sign enforcement
• Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders
• Compilation of DUI “Hot Sheets,” identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders
• 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.