For the fourth year in a row, the San Diego County District Attorney’s Office has received a grant from the California Office of Traffic Safety to prosecute DUI cases involving fatalities and some serious injury cases, it was announced Wednesday.
As part of the $248,788 grant and with assistance from the Southern California Training Center, the unit will continue to coordinate and participate in DUI prevention and awareness in schools, military bases and colleges. It will also continue to provide training to local law enforcement agencies.
” There have already been 20 defendants charged with DUI murder or manslaughter this year alone,” said District Attorney Summer Stephan. “Every year we see lives shattered by death and injury, all for something that is 100 percent preventable. This grant will help our office continue its hard work in prosecuting these cases, and collaborating with our law enforcement and community to prevent this harm before it happens. This year is the worst year we have had in nearly a decade for DUI fatalities.”
Last year, more than 10,322 DUI-related cases were prosecuted in San Diego County. Of that number, the District Attorney’s Office prosecuted 448 DUI- with-injury cases, up from 363 in 2014 and 419 in 2015. Throughout the county, the trend continues with more than 55 percent of all DUI alcohol cases involving a blood-alcohol content of more than .15 percent.
The DUI Homicide Unit streamlines complex DUI cases, resulting in quicker resolutions, and creates uniformity in sentencing among the four adult courthouses in San Diego County. The unit also helps law enforcement adapt to changes in technology by having a designated district attorney investigator trained in the latest techniques in collision reconstruction.
—City News Service
