Avoid the 12, Santa Barbara County’s multi-jurisdictional crackdown on drunk drivers, has received a $139,000 one-year grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration to continue its work during holiday campaigns through September of next year.
“The grant, which is administered by the county Sheriff’s Department, will cover enforcement done through sobriety/drivers license checkpoints, DUI saturation patrols, multi-agency DUI task forces deployments, court stings and warrant/probation operations,” stated Senior Dep. Jeff Farmer, Avoid the 12 coordinator.
“The Avoid campaigns have helped make our roadways safer, lowering drunk driving deaths by nearly 27 percent in the last five years in California,” said OTS Director Christopher J. Murphy. “Tragically, alcohol impaired deaths still account for 31 percent of all traffic fatalities. This grant will help make Santa Barbara County a safer place to live and work.”
Motorist can expect to see DUI campaigns during the winter and summer holiday periods as well as on Halloween, Super Bowl Sunday, St. Patrick’s Day, Cinco de Mayo and during local special events with identified DUI problems.
Campaigns like Avoid the 12 are active in 42 of California’s counties.
Comments
I'm all for it, and I don't mind one bit if they dig into my pockets via tax $$$.
Of course if our culture (including this publication) would come to terms about the lie behind the "wine tasting" culture and expose what really goes on, (as the Office of Traffic Safety and the California Highway Patrol have done in their Public Service Announcements on KEYT,) then we could make headway into addressing the causes of drunk or even "buzzed" driving.
Smoking used to be popular, but through common sense education most people don't engage in that habit in face of the irrefutable evidence. Hopefully, similar enlightenment will occur per drinking and driving.
billclausen (anonymous profile)
November 21, 2010 at 5:25 a.m. (Suggest removal)