Secretary Peña Announces Incentive Grant for California to
Reduce Drunk Driving
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Friday, July 12, 1996
NHTSA 32-96
Contact: Barry McCahill
Tel. No. (202) 366-9550
U.S. Secretary of Transportation Federico Peña today
announced a grant of $3,271,554 to California’s Office of Traffic Safety
to assist with the continuing implementation of tough programs against
drunk driving.
“Safety is President Clinton’s top transportation priority, and this
grant will support that goal by helping to reduce the number of drunk
drivers on the road,” Secretary Peña said. “The state of
California is making excellent progress against drunk driving. These
funds are added resources for jurisdictions already working to reduce the
tragic number of deaths and injuries resulting from drinking and
driving.”
Under the “Section 410” program, states receive incentive grants from
the department’s National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for
aggressive anti-drunk driving programs such as:
- laws setting a certain blood alcohol concentration as “per se”
evidence of driving while intoxicated, - enforcing laws against the sale of alcohol to minors,
- conducting regular sobriety checkpoints,
- establishing self-sustaining drunk driving prevention
programs.
California operates all these programs and also has banned open
containers and consumption of alcohol in vehicles, has mandatory alcohol
testing for persons in fatal and injury crashes, and has a videotape
equipment program in police vehicles for detecting drunk drivers.