At their Tuesday afternoon meeting, the Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors will vote on funding to increase DUI enforcement throughout the county. The Castaic Animal Care Center is also in line to receive an estate bequest, pending the Board’s approval.

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Each year, the county receives funding for drunk driving enforcement, saturation patrols and checkpoints from the state Office of Traffic Safety. The University of California at Berkeley’s Safe Transportation Research and Education Center will also provide funding through federal money awarded by the state to the University of California system.

If approved, the more than $2.5 million from the OTS and UC Berkeley would go toward “(reducing) the number of persons killed and injured in alcohol-involved and drug-involved traffic collisions, and (reducing) the number of hit-and-run fatality and injury collisions,” Los Angeles County Sheriff Lee Baca said in a statement.

The grant is of special interest to the Santa Clarita Valley, because DUI checkpoints are a regular occurrence, removing dangerous drivers from the road and identifying unlicensed motorists.

The latest checkpoint in the SCV, on Friday, Sept. 13, netted two arrests for impaired driving and sent at least 12 people were sent to court for suspended licenses and vehicle code violations.

In a previous interview, Sgt. Richard Cohen of the Santa Clarita Valley Sheriff’s Station described the importance of cracking down on drunk driving.

“Over the course of the past five years, DUI collisions have claimed 11 lives and resulted in 255 injury crashes harming 363 of our friends and neighbors,” Cohen said. “If everyone planned ahead for a sober non-drinking designated drivers these numbers could be lowered to Zero.”

Increased safety could also becoming to the Castaic Animal Care Center, if the board approves a $10,000 bequest from the estate of John P. Buss to the Department of Animal Care and Control.

The money would be earmarked to install lighting in the “dog get acquainted yard” at the shelter, where families interact with dogs they are considering adopting.

“Providing lighting to this area will increase safety and extend the time it can be used during the shorter days of winter,” said DACC Director Marcia Mayeda in her letter to the board.

The Los Angeles County Board of Supervisors’ next meeting begins at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, Oct. 15 and is streamed on their website. Click here to view.

For a copy of Tuesday’s full agenda and related documents, click here.

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