Grant designed to reduce DUIs in El Dorado County

Building on the successes achieved in recent years, the Avoid the 6 DUI task force bring more traffic enforcement to El Dorado County. Special DUI enforcement campaigns are as a result of a $321,513.00 grant awarded by the California Office of Traffic Safety to the South Lake Tahoe Police Department.

“Our first grant funded event will start Memorial Day Weekend with a multi-agency DUI check point and DUI saturation patrols,” Sgt. Shannon Laney said. “This is a big deal for our community and brings in much needed funding to combat impaired driving, our No. 1 cause of injury collisions in South Lake Tahoe.”

The grant activities will specifically target those who drink too much and get behind the wheel.  Additionally, funding will target repeat DUI offenders with warrant/probation sweeps searching for those in violation of court orders and those who have not appeared in court on past DUI arrests. Finally, the Avoid the 6 DUI Campaign will conduct court sting enforcement operations focusing on those who leave the courtroom and drive away on suspended licenses after being ordered not to drive by the judge.

South Lake Tahoe Police Department will administer the grant for the entire county. Funding for the grant comes from the California Office of Traffic Safety through the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Agencies participating in the ‘Avoid the 6’ task force include: South Lake Tahoe Police Department, Placerville Police Department, El Dorado County Sheriff’s Department, El Dorado County Probation, California Highway Patrol and California Department of Alcoholic Beverage Control

“The Avoid task forces have played an integral role in the recent reductions in alcohol-related and other deaths on our roadways, lowering alcohol impaired deaths by more than 20 percent in the last three years in California,” Christopher Murphy, director of the Office of Traffic Safety, said in a press release. “This grant will help make South Lake Tahoe and El Dorado County a safer place to visit, live and work.”