South Lake Tahoe Police Department has been awarded $33,200 for a yearlong program to curtail “traffic safety problems,” according to a news release.

The grant, funded by the California Office of Traffic Safety, was awarded to aid the department in its efforts to stop people driving under the influence.

“We take traffic safety very seriously in South Lake Tahoe,” SLTPD Sgt. Shannon Laney stated in the news release.

“With this grant funding we will be able to directly address the causes of injury collisions within our community.”

Activities that the grant will fund, according to the release, include specialized DUI and drugged driving training such as sobriety tests, advanced roadside impaired driving enforcement and drug recognition evaluating, DUI saturation patrols, motorcycle safety enforcement and distracted driving enforcement.

“One of the patrol division goals is to make an impact on the number of fatalities we have seen increase in the last two, three years,” SLTPD Lt. Brian Williams said.

Statistics show DUIs are the most-common link to traffic fatalities, the release stated.

“While traffic deaths from all causes declined by nearly 39 percent between 2006 and 2010 in California, they rose by 2.6 percent in 2011,” the release stated. “State and federal officials anticipate that figures will show another rise for 2012. DUI deaths remain the largest sector, at nearly 30 percent of traffic fatalities.”