LOS ALAMITOS : City Seeks Funds for Traffic Checkpoints
The city has joined Seal Beach and Signal Hill in seeking state funding for a program that is intended to improve enforcement of seat-belt laws and minimize alcohol-related traffic accidents.
The City Council this week unanimously approved a proposal by the Police Department to ask for $286,000 in state money for checkpoints to be set up between October this year and December, 1994, to monitor traffic safety.
Acting Police Chief Gary Biggerstaff told the council that the checkpoints will target drunk drivers and motorists with children who are not wearing seat belts or child-restraint devices.
“It’s on a regional basis, so it’s more viable than for one city to do it,” said Biggerstaff. He said the proposal was submitted this week to the state Office of Traffic Safety.
Biggerstaff said that the plan is to conduct eight checkpoints in each city over the 15-month period. Each checkpoint will have 11 police officers, one supervisor, a dispatcher and three volunteers supplied by the three police departments.
Bonnie Emmack of the Signal Hill Police Department, who is writing the grant proposal, said that in addition to the checkpoints, efforts will be made to educate the public about drunk driving and the use of seat belts.
About 160 child-restraint car seats will also be given to community organizations in Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Signal Hill for distribution to residents, she said.
Biggerstaff said that Los Alamitos, Seal Beach and Signal Hill police have worked together in the past in such areas as narcotics, prostitution and burglary enforcement.
More Checkpoints
Los Alamitos will join Seal Beach and Signal Hill in seeking $286,000 in state funds to set up 24 checkpoints from this October through December, 1994, to increase drunk-driving arrests and improve child safety regulations. Results from 1992:
DRIVING UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Los Seal Signal Alamitos Beach Hill DUI checkpoints 0 0 17 Average monthly 6 11 29 DUI arrests Total DUI arrests 66 137 347 DUI-related injuries 4 15 5 DUI-related deaths 0 1 0
CAR SEAT BELTS
Los Seal Signal Alamitos Beach Hill Car-seat checkpoints 0 0 3 Average monthly 248 98 812 seat-belt violations Total seat-belt 2,978 1,171 9,748 violations
Source: Signal Hill police study; Researched by BERT ELJERA / For The Times
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