SAN JACINTO: Six-year rise in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities focus of grant

SAN JACINTO – Riverside County Sheriff’s officials announced Wednesday, Oct. 26 that the department’s San Jacinto Police Station has been awarded a $60,000 Special Traffic Enforcement and Crash Prevention (STEP) grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety. The grant will fund a year-long program of special enforcement and public awareness efforts to prevent traffic related deaths and injuries.

The San Jacinto Police Department will use the STEP grant funding as part of the city’s ongoing commitment to keep the city’s roadways safe and improve quality of life through both enforcement and education, according to Riverside Sheriff’s Sergeant Robert Himmelberg.

Of specific concern for San Jacinto Police Department officials are statistics that have shown a noticeable increase in pedestrian-related deaths throughout the area.

After falling to a ten-year low in 2010, the number of persons killed in highway related accidents has climbed nearly 17% across the state with 3,176 killed in 2015, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

“Particularly alarming is the six-year rise in pedestrian and bicycle fatalities, along with the growing dangers of distracting technologies, and the emergence of drug-impaired driving as a major problem,” Himmelberg wrote in a press release.

“This grant funding will provide opportunities to combat these and other devastating problems such as drunk driving, speeding and crashes at intersections,” Himmelberg explained.

“Years of research tells us that enforcement and education work best jointly to combat unsafe driving,” said OTS Director Rhonda Craft. “This grant brings both tactics together, with the Office of Traffic Safety and the San Jacinto Police Department working in concert to help keep the streets and highways safe across San Jacinto and the state.”

Activities that the grant will fund include:

• Educational presentations
• DUI checkpoints
• DUI saturation patrols
• Pedestrian safety enforcement
• Distracted driving enforcement
• Seat belt and child safety seat enforcement
• Speed, red light, and stop sign enforcement
• Warrant service operations targeting multiple DUI offenders

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

 

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Trevor Montgomery spent 10 years in the U.S. Army as an Orthopedic Specialist before joining the Riverside County Sheriff’s Department in 1998. He was medically retired after losing his leg in an off-duty accident.

During his time with the sheriff’s department, Trevor worked at several different stations, including the Robert Presley Detention Center, the Southwest Station in Temecula, the Hemet Station, and the Lake Elsinore Station, along with many other locations.