Money to help safety

Costa Mesa police are crunching the numbers that could keep you or your car from being crunched.

Thanks to the California Office of Traffic Safety, Costa Mesa police recently received a $300,000 shot in the arm for extra DUI and traffic safety enforcement that will last until Sept. 30.

The money will be spread among more than half a dozen operations police will conduct in the next year, part of the Selective Traffic Enforcement Program.

Among those are red light patrols and speed patrols, where officers target specific streets and intersections known for speeders and traffic crashes, said Sgt. Rob Sharpnack.

Sharpnack said officers put in lots of hours analyzing traffic data the police department collects. Where are the most traffic crashes with injures? When, why? Where are there frequent reports of people speeding? Police answer those questions and then patrol accordingly.

According to the latest statistics available from Oct. 1, 2007, to Sept. 30, 2008, there were 70 injury car crashes in Costa Mesa where someone ran a red light. There were 292 total injury crashes in a Costa Mesa intersection and 644 total injury crashes throughout the city.

Police expect to conduct a dozen DUI checkpoints with the more than $100,000 in overtime and equipment covered by the grant, said Sharpnack.

Officers will also conduct 15 saturation patrols where extra officers patrol look specifically for drivers under the influence, he said.

Officers will also patrol for dangerous motorcyclists following recent state numbers that show a 175% jump in motorcycle fatalities in California in the last decade, officials said.

A small portion of the grant goes toward buying Selective Traffic Enforcement Program equipment, Sharpnack said. Police will get a new traffic collision reconstruction system that can actually analyze crash data at the site and reconstruct the crash for police, and “speed monitor boxes” that police will use to find streets frequented by speeders.

In the end, the new equipment will increase investigators’ efficiency and increased enforcement will save lives and the public money, he said.