Thanks to a new traffic safety grant, the San Diego County Sheriff's Department and Police Department will hopefully be able to help prevent deaths and injuries caused by DUI-related vehicle accidents. The $372,000 anti-DUI grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety in San Diego will be used to enhance law enforcement measures that keep drunk drivers off the road, Scoop San Diego reported.

“The San Diego Police is committed to keeping our roadways safe," said Assistant Police Chief Lawrence McKinney, in the article. "With this grant, we look forward to reaching more drivers to spread the message not to drink and drive. It’s simply, if you drink and drive in San Diego, you will go to jail."

Education services will also be improved to make the public aware of the dangers associated with driving while impaired, the department said, and DUI/driver's license checkpoints will be set up. The Office of Traffic Safety said these checkpoints significantly reduced the number of DUI deaths between 2006 and 2010 statewide, Scoop reported.

San Diego County has an "Avoid the 15" anti-DUI task force, which is named after the number of law enforcement agencies working together to reduce impaired driving and related car crashes, injuries and deaths in the area. According to a sheriff's department release, the checkpoints are aimed at decreasing the number of impaired drivers on the road, not increasing arrests. They have proven to reduce the number of crashes involving alcohol by 20 percent.
The task force was out patrolling checkpoints during the Halloween weekend and holiday, looking for suspected drunk drivers, a CNS report stated. The checkpoints would be used throughout the county until November 4.