Ceres Police Department has been awarded a $48,000 grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) for a year-long program aimed at preventing deaths and injuries on roadways through special enforcement and public awareness efforts.

The grant received by Ceres will aid in the city's ongoing effort to improve traffic safety and the quality of life. Ceres Police Department will use the funding as part of an on-going commitment to keep our roadways safe through both enforcement and education.

"In poor economic times we are fortunate to be recipients of grant funding from the Office of Traffic Safety to help eliminate impaired motorists from our roadways," said Ceres Police Chief Art de Werk. "This funding allows our officers to increase enforcement activities and target DUI offenders. This state funding makes it possible to increase roadway safety for all members of the public. Ceres Police is an enthusiastic participant in this effort."

The grant will assist in efforts to deal with traffic safety problems and to reduce the number of persons killed and injured in traffic collisions. While traffic deaths from all causes declined by nearly 39 percent between 2006 and 2010 in California, they rose by 2.6 percent in 2011. DUI-related crash deaths remain the largest sector, at nearly 30 percent of traffic fatalities. Recent trends show increases in two new categories - distracted driving and drug-impaired driving.

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as Standardized Field Sobriety Testing (SFST), Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE), and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE);

• DUI saturation patrols;

• Motorcycle safety enforcement;

• Distracted driving enforcement;

• Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement;

• Speed, red light and stop sign enforcement;

• Warrant operations targeting multiple DUI offenders;

• Compilation of DUI "hot sheets" identifying worst-of-the-worst DUI offenders;

• Stakeout operations to observe the "worst of the worst" repeat DUI offender probationers with suspended or revoked driver licenses.

Funding for this program is from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.