IE Business Daily Business news for the Inland Empire.
The Riverside County Sheriff’s Department has received a grant of nearly $1.1 million from the California Office of Traffic Safety, money that it will use to pay for a year-long effort intended to prevent traffic-related deaths and injuries.
Department officials plan to use the funds for education and enforcement activities, including traffic safety education forums, extra patrols at busy intersections, checks for seat belt and child-safety compliance and beefed-up speeding, red light and stop sign enforcement.
The department will also compile “hot sheets” listing repeat DUI offenders.
More than 3,600 people died in traffic accidents in California in 2016, a seven percent increase compared with the previous year. That included nearly a 33 percent rise in pedestrian deaths dating to 2012, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
“Almost all crashes are preventable,” administration director Rhonda Craft said in the statement. “Education and enforcement go hand in hand [in] helping to change behaviors that cause devastating crashes.”
