BAKERSFIELD, Calif. -- The Bakersfield Police Department has been awarded a new traffic safety grant for a year-long anti-DUI program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on our roadways.

New enforcement measures to combat impaired driving are coming as a result of a recent $589,000 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to the City of Bakersfield.

“This grant will allow the Bakersfield Police Department to maintain its zero tolerance approach to combating drunk driving on our local roadways,” said Bakersfield Police Chief, Bill Rector. “The BPD has enjoyed its partnership with the California Office of Traffic Safety in keeping the motorists in our community safe. As a result of our efforts we have experienced a decrease in DUI related fatalities since 2006, and an increase in arrests of DUI offenders.”

The special DUI Enforcement and Awareness grant is said to assist in efforts to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol and other drug related collisions.

The grant activities will specifically target impaired driving offenders as well as educate the public on the dangers of impaired driving, Lt. Scott McDonald stated in a release.

McDonald said that this will be done through the use of DUI/driver’s license checkpoints, warrant searches and stakeouts for repeat DUI offenders, saturation patrols, and court stings targeting DUI offenders with suspended or revoked driver licenses get behind the wheel after leaving court.

Drunk driving is one of America’s deadliest crimes. In 2008, over 11,700 people died in highway crashes involving a driver or motorcycle operator with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or higher.

"Last year in California 1,029 died in alcohol impaired crashes, a 9 percent reduction in deaths from 2007,” said Christopher J. Murphy, Director of the Office of Traffic Safety. “This grant will help keep that trend going by getting drunk drivers off the roadways of Bakersfield, making it safer for everyone.”

New this year is the addition of ten special Motorcycle Safety Enforcement Operations.

Motorcycle fatalities have been on the rise in California, increasing 175 percent statewide in the last decade, from 204 killed in 1998 to 560 killed in 2008.

Officers of the BPD will be conducting specialized enforcement efforts throughout the course of the next year. Extra officers will be on duty patrolling areas frequented by motorcycles. Officers will be cracking down on traffic violations made by motorcyclists, and other vehicle drivers, that result in far too many motorcycle collisions, injuries and deaths.

Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Information Provided by the Bakersfield Police Department