Sacramento PD uses grant funds to ramp up traffic safety enforcement
The $400,000 grant will be used for speeding enforcement, adding DUI checkpoints and targeting distracted drivers
Sacramento Police Department vehicles are seen investigating a roadway fatality in July 2024. The agency has received $400,000 from the California Office of Traffic Safety to step up enforcement of reckless driving.
Renée C. Byer/rbyer@sacbee.com/TNS
Ariane Lange
The Sacramento Bee
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Sacramento Police Department will ramp up enforcement of traffic safety violations in high-risk areas with new grant funding from the state,
Chief Kathy Lester said in a city news release
.
The $400,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety will run through September.
Sacramento has some of the worst traffic fatality rates in California, and last year,
The Sacramento Bee reported on the deaths of 32 people
. This year, records previously released by the Police Department show three crashes killed people between Jan. 1 and Feb. 13 . Another severe crash
made international news last month
when Nilam Shinde, a 35-year-old engineer, was left in a coma after a collision on Fair Oaks Boulevard near Cadillac Drive. A representative for Sacramento State confirmed that Shinde, who immigrated from India, is a current graduate student in the university’s master’s program for business analytics.
NDTV reported that she was hit
not far from where Johnnie A. Fite, a cyclist, was fatally struck last June.
Lester said the grant would “strengthen our traffic enforcement efforts.” Among other programs, police would ramp up speeding enforcement, add DUI checkpoints and add operations that target distracted drivers. The money would also be used on operations that focus on drivers who particularly endanger cyclists and pedestrians. Last summer, officers conducted a one-day crosswalk “sting operation” at the intersection of 21st and J streets and
issued 55 citations for violations that endangered pedestrians
, including failure to yield.
The carjacking 15-year-old suspect ran from St. Louis officers after spike strips stopped a stolen vehicle; a pursuing officer was then struck by a hit-and-run driver
“The blood of my officers lays at the steps of our Capitol,” Pueblo PD Chief Chris Noeller said; the wounded officers were shot by a gang member with 14 prior felony arrests
The vast majority of traffic fatalities are preventable with changes to infrastructure. With that in mind, in 2017, Sacramento’s City Council made a “Vision Zero” pledge to eliminate all traffic fatalities and severe injuries by 2027. Data released by the Sacramento Police Department in response to a public records request show that more than 300 people have died on city streets since the council made that pledge.
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