The Long Beach health department has been awarded nearly $1 million to advance traffic safety education and prevention efforts to help reduce crashes related to distracted or impaired driving, and unsafe biking and walking behaviors.<\/p>\n
That\u00a0money \u2014 totaling $915,000 \u2014 is spread across three grants from the California Office of Traffic Safety, with the funding coming through funding from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, according to a press release.<\/p>\n
The funding will support the health department\u2019s traffic safety prevention programs, officials said, including Walk & Roll LB, which delivers bicycle, pedestrian and active-transportation safety and injury-prevention education; and Greenlight LB, which leads the city\u2019s distracted- and impaired-driving prevention work.<\/p>\n
Together, these efforts promote safer travel across the city through education, outreach and behavior-change strategies, with a focus on youth and young adults, high-risk neighborhoods and communities disproportionatley impacted by traffic collisions.<\/p>\n
In 2024, there were 40 traffic-related deaths, according to data<\/a> from the Long Beach Police Department, up from 36 in 2023.<\/p>\n The three grants the Long Beach Department of Health and Human Services received will help ongoing efforts to reduce serious traffic-related injuries and fatalities. The money will also help align the health department\u2019s Strategic Plan with the city\u2019s Safe Streets initiative<\/a> \u2013 aimed at eliminating traffic-related deaths and injuries by 2026 \u2013 and its Strategic Vision 2030<\/a> goals.<\/p>\n \u201cTraffic safety continues to be one of our top public safety priorities,\u201d Mayor Rex Richardson said in a statement. \u201cThese grants allow us to educate our community, promote safer choices and prevent injuries on our streets.\u201d<\/p>\n The funds, which arrived on Oct. 1 and will last until Sept. 30, will support various initiatives, according to a press release. Some of these initiatives include school and community-based presentations promoting safe behaviors for pedestrians, bicyclists and drivers; peer-to-peer youth engagement programs addressing distracted and impaired driving; interactive demonstrations and hands-on learning activities that reinforce safe choices; and distribution of free traffic protective gear, such as helmets, bike lights and reflective materials to support safer walking and biking; among others.<\/p>\n \u201cThese combined investments strengthen the cornerstone of our injury-prevention work at the health department,\u201d Alison King, director of the health department, said in a statement. \u201cBy focusing on education, behavior change and hands-on strategies that meet people where they are, we\u2019re helping youth, families and high-risk communities stay safe on Long Beach streets.\u201d<\/p>\n Long Beach\u2019s programs have delivered significant prevention and safety impacts over the past year, with the support of previous OTS funding, officials said.<\/p>\n Thiese include:<\/p>\n Reaching more than 8,300 community members through education, outreach and safety demonstrations. \u201cTraffic safety education saves lives,\u201d OTS Director Stephanie Dougherty said in a statement. \u201cStaying alert, sober and distraction-free behind the wheel can prevent tragedies on our roadways. We are proud to support Long Beach as they continue these critical efforts.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The Long Beach health department has been awarded nearly $1 million to advance traffic safety education and prevention…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":92685,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[33],"tags":[7,179,23,131,133,132,137,1492],"class_list":{"0":"post-92684","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-long-beach","8":"tag-california","9":"tag-community","10":"tag-local-news","11":"tag-long-beach","12":"tag-long-beach-headlines","13":"tag-long-beach-news","14":"tag-los-angeles-county","15":"tag-public-safety"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92684","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=92684"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/92684\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/92685"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=92684"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=92684"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=92684"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nConducting 37 presentations across Long Beach Unified School District campuses.
\nEngaging youth leaders through peer-to-peer programs that promote safe driving and active transportation.
\nDistributing 264 helmets, and more than 3,200 bike lights and reflective gear to support safer biking and walking.
\nHosting community pop-up events, impaired-driving demonstrations and youth-focused activities.
\nDelivering citywide media and awareness campaigns to reduce distracted and drug-impaired driving.<\/p>\n