Local Police Departments Receive Hundreds of Thousands in Grants to Improve Traffic Safety

Local police departments have received hundreds of thousands of dollars in grants to improve traffic safety in Bakersfield and Kern County.

The Bakersfield Police Department received two grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety totaling $433,000 — the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program grant for $400,000, and the Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program grant for $33,000. Specifically, the grant money will be used for DUI checkpoints, enforcement operations, community presentations, and much more.

Chain | Cohn | Clark is highlighting the specific traffic safety programs you’ll likely be seeing locally in the coming year.

• DUI checkpoints and patrols specifically focused on suspected impaired drivers. Our community has seen at least 4,000 DUI arrests made each year, according to the Kern County District Attorney’s Office – nearly 12 DUI arrests per day. Kern County ranks worst in the state for DUI crashes resulting in injuries, and second most in the United States. And during this pandemic, fatal crash rates have spiked, with speeding, lower seatbelt use, and impaired driving to blame.
• Enforcement operations focused on top violations that cause crashes: speeding, failure to yield, stop sign and/or red-light running, and improper turning or lane changes. The number of people killed by drivers running red lights has hit a 10-year high, according to a study by Automobile Club of Southern California (AAA). Nearly 1,000 people were killed in a year, according to the most recent statistics available — that’s a 30 percent increase from 10 years ago.
• Enforcement operations focused on suspected distracted drivers in violation of California’s hands-free cell phone law. Each year more than 400,000 people are injured and more than 3,000 people are killed in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted drivers, making up nearly 10% of all fatal crashes, according to the latest figures from The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. In California, nearly 20,000 crashes took place that involved distracted driving, which resulted in more than 100 deaths and 13,500 injuries, according to CHP.
• Bicycle and pedestrian safety enforcement operations focused on driver behaviors that put vulnerable road users at risk. A new nationwide study that lists Bakersfield as the No. 2 most dangerous metropolitan area in the United States to be a pedestrian. The “Dangerous by Design” study by Smart Growth America analyzed government data from 2010 to 2019 to create a Pedestrian Danger Index. In that time period, 260 pedestrians died in Bakersfield.
• Community education presentations on traffic safety issues such as distracted driving, DUI, speeding, and bicycle and pedestrian safety. The increase also comes at a time of another sobering statistic: From 2016 through 2018 in California, more cyclists died in traffic accidents across the state than during any three-year period in the past 25 years, according to California Healthline. Surging popularity of bike shares and fitness cycling are part of the reasons.

Meanwhile in northern Kern County, the Delano Police Department also received a grant to combat dangerous and illegal driving behavior. Delano Police received $50,000 from the California Road Safety Authority for DUI checkpoints, patrols catch drivers who violate California’s hands-free mobile phone law, bicycle and pedestrian safety, community education presentations on road safety issues, and officer training or recertification. These efforts will continue through September 2022.

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If you or someone you know is injured in an accident at the fault of someone else, or injured on the job no matter whose fault it is, contact the attorneys at Chain | Cohn | Clark by calling (661) 323-4000, or fill out a free consultation form, text, or chat with us at chainlaw.com.