Safety first, Salinas puts grant money towards traffic enforcement and education

As the city continues to reel from recent pedestrian fatalities, Salinas City Council on Tuesday accepted two traffic grants that aim to combine enforcement with pedestrian and bicycle safety education to create a safer environment for people walking and biking in the city.

Council authorized the acceptance of two grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety that Salinas Police Department will use toward traffic enforcement operations and bicycle and pedestrian safety education at city schools.

Salinas awarded traffic grants totaling more than $250,000

Salinas Police Department will use the $98,000 Selective Traffic Enforcement Program (STEP) grant to conduct operations that target distracted driving and other violations, including speeding, jumping red-lights and DUIs, which according to the staff report, have shown to be the proximate cause of collisions in Salinas.

Grant monies will also go toward focused enforcement at locations with a high instance of collision and injuries. The department has received STEP funding for the last 11 years to support traffic and DUI enforcement activities such as sobriety checkpoints.

Foods Co. hit-and-run: Salinas police arrest suspect of fatal hit-and-run

Between 2021 and the end of March 2024, there were more than 1,100 total collisions in Salinas, resulting in six fatalities and more than 1,600 injuries, according to provisional collision data from the Transportation Inquiry Mapping System (TIMS).

The Pedestrian and Bicycle Safety Program grant for $170,831 will be used to give Salinas students lessons on pedestrian and bicycle safety in the classroom and through organized walking field trips and bike rides.

The Salinas Police Department has been awarded this grant since 2019, according to the staff report. The department use the funding to subcontract with Ecology Action, a Santa Cruz based nonprofit to lead the instruction and partner with local agencies to support school and community events.

Salinas traffic gridlock guide: Get the latest traffic reports, live views from Salinas traffic cams

Typically, the lessons have been targeted to local fifth graders, but this year the program is expanding to include bicycle safety training for middle and high school students, which Acting Police Chief John Murray said is a growing need.

“In Salinas we’ve been dealing with the marauding kids on bicycles and in the past, the flash mobs; this is an opportunity to provide some education before they get sucked into that,” Murray told the council.

The program also gives participating students helmets and cycling safety equipment, Murray said.

Pedestrian safety concerns raised by Councilmember Osornio

Orlando Osornio, councilmember for District 4, which includes the busy traffic corridors of the Alisal area of Salinas, highlighted the persistent threat to pedestrian safety, especially among local youth.

“What I am really looking for from the grants is to increase safety for pedestrians,” said Osornio, who went on to suggest a collaboration with El Sausal Middle School and Sherwood Elementary School which are near to the sites of two recent pedestrian deaths, including that of a 3-year-old child who was struck by a hit-and-run driver while crossing in a crosswalk with his father.

Murray said the grant funded activities are part of a broader strategy to provide training, safety equipment coupled with enforcement in the hope that it will influence behavior on both sides.

“Distracted driving, speeding; these are the challenges, and this is going to help us address a lot of the things you are concerned about,” Murray said.

This article originally appeared on Salinas Californian: Safety first, Salinas puts grant money towards traffic enforcement and education