Grant to Help CHP Battle Winery-Related DUI
Booze-Related Accidents High Around Wine-tasting Areas, CHP Says
The California Office of Traffic and Safety awarded a grant of $658,000 to the Santa Barbara-area CHP to fund a program titled “STOP DUI, II.” The program will target the areas around Santa Barbara County wineries with the aim of reducing the decreasing number of alcohol related injuries and deaths. The grant money will be used to educate drivers, wineries, and local restaurants as well as overtime pay to increase enforcement in the area, including for staffing two sobriety checkpoints. CHP reports that a large number of recent DUI collisions and arrests involved drivers who had been visiting wine tasting facilities at one of Santa Barbara’s more than 90 wineries.
