Sheriff Steve Prator announced today the Louisiana Highway Safety Commission awarded $74,200 in federal traffic safety funding to the Caddo Sheriff’s Office for fiscal year 2016.

Prator said the funds will be used to provide overtime pay for deputies participating in patrols and enforcement activities that identify drunk drivers and those who violate seatbelt and child safety seat laws. The funds will provide about 1,800 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 in 2014 involved impairment of some form, Prator said.