Grant Details

The goal of California Office of Traffic Safety (OTS) Grant Program is to prevent serious injury and death resulting from motor vehicle crashes so that all roadway users arrive at their destination safely. Using Federal Highway Safety Program funds, the OTS partners with political subdivisions of the state to address California's highway safety needs at the state, county and local level.

OTS funds programs in the following areas:

• Alcohol Impaired Driving - These programs aim to prevent people from driving under the influence (DUI) of alcohol or other drugs and to remove DUI drivers from the road. OTS grants use a comprehensive approach by funding educational, prevention, and enforcement programs and by focusing on high-risk groups.
• Distracted Driving - These programs aim to reduce collisions involving drivers using handheld devices. Countermeasures include increased and focused enforcement, observational surveys, and public awareness campaigns, while other actions are being developed to change behavior.
• Drug Impaired Driving - These programs aim to decrease the average response time for the arrival of appropriate equipment at collision sites in rural areas. Funding also supports increased officer training in the NHTSA Advanced Roadside Impaired Driving Enforcement (ARIDE) and Drug Recognition Evaluator (DRE) programs, which should lead to better detection of drug-impaired drivers. 
• Emergency Medical Services (crash related) - These programs provide funds for cost-effective programs that incorporate effective strategies for improving California's EMS system's ability to meet the needs of motor vehicle collision victims. OTS-funded programs provide life-saving equipment, training, reliable ambulance transportation, effective communications, public information, education, and access to data and evaluation tools.
• Motorcycle Safety - These programs support new actions in the effort to reduce motorcycle collisions, injuries and fatalities. Activities include, enhancing the motorcycle safety awareness component in driver education courses, encouraging the use of proper protective equipment for riders, outreach to un-endorsed motorcycle owners offering refresher” rider training courses, consideration of motorcycle safety in roadway design.
• Occupant Protection - These programs support statewide and local public information campaigns, increased enforcement, and community education, outreach, and training. More specifically, the programs provide child safety seats to low-income families, conduct child safety seat check ups, and educate teens about using seat belts.
• Pedestrian Safety/Bicycle Safety - These programs increase awareness of traffic rules, rights, and responsibilities among various age groups. These programs are developed to be attractive and interactive in an effort to truly impact students. At the elementary school level, parents and teachers are drawn into the programs as active role models and mentors in traffic safety. Grantees conduct traffic safety rodeos and presentations in an effort to build students' skills and demonstrate proper practical application of those skills. To boost compliance with the law and decrease injuries, safety helmets are properly fitted and distributed to children in need for use with bicycles, scooters, skateboards, and skates. There is a special emphasis on programs designed exclusively for the hard-to-reach population at the middle and high school levels. Additional outreach endeavors include programs targeting the senior population along with a multicultural approach to address safer driving and walking behaviors.
• Police Traffic Services - These programs focus on a comprehensive approach to enforce and encourage compliance with seat belt use, impaired driving, speed limit, red light running, and other traffic laws. The grants are highly effective in reducing traffic collisions by dedicating resources to selective enforcement and education programs. These comprehensive programs have a long-lasting impact in reducing fatal and injury collisions. Under these programs, communities use available public and private assets to identify and attack significant traffic safety problems and other vehicle related crimes.
• Traffic Records/Roadway Safety - These programs concentrate on the vehicle operating environment and are strongly influenced by enforcement, engineering, and utilizing relevant data generated by those activities to improve roadway safety and traffic records. OTS advocates efforts to automate traffic collision database systems and the ability to analyze and map high-collision locations. Grant-funded items include hardware, software, and expert services necessary to aid in the automation of manual processes, eliminate process duplication, and facilitate enhanced data gathering and data sharing.

Additional funding is available as a "General Grant" for those entities seeking funding to address traffic safety problems other than those listed above.