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The Caddo Parish Sheriff’s Office has been awarded a grant from the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission for increased traffic enforcement, said Sheriff Steve Prator.

The grant is for $49,840 and will be used to provide extra-duty enforcement of DWI, occupant protection, and speed laws through September 30, 2014.

Prator said the funds will provide about 1600 hours of increased patrols and checkpoints to target these most deadly violations. Statewide, alcohol is a factor in over one-third of all fatal crashes; nearly two-thirds of fatality crashes involve lack of restraint use. Locally, more than half of all traffic fatality crashes worked by the Caddo Sheriff's Office this past year involved impairment of some form, Prator said.