DA TO USE STATE GRANT FOR FATAL-DUI-CRASH TEAM

With the San Diego region seeing a sharp uptick in fatal DUI crashes — with one death a week over the last five months — the county District Attorney’s Office announced last week it had received a $426,000 state grant to prosecute impaired-driving deaths.

Non-injury DUI cases are down more than 30 percent so far this year, which included months of limited public activity and largely empty freeways because of COVID-19 restrictions. But fatal DUI crashes are up 33 percent, with 24 deaths so far this year compared to 18 a year ago. Blood-alcohol levels are also higher than last year’s average, the District Attorney’s Office said.

If the trend continues, the region by year’s end will surpass a grim record set in 2017, when the county tallied its worst year for fatal DUI crashes with 25 people killed.

DA Summer Stephan said in a news release that the state grant would be used to fund a special prosecution team focused on DUI fatalities. Formed in 2014, the DUI homicide unit streamlines complex DUI cases by relying on experts within the office. It creates uniformity in sentencing in the region’s four courthouses that handle cases involving adult defendants.

“Even with stay-at-home orders because of the pandemic and many bars being closed, we are still on the brink of topping the highest number of deadly DUI crashes we have had in a single year,” Stephan said. “Today’s drivers know the risks and the dangers of driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, yet they persist.”

The District Attorney’s Office has used $2.7 million in grants from the state Office of Traffic Safety over the past seven years to fund its DUI homicide unit. When someone dies at the hands of a DUI driver, those cases are investigated as potential murders instead of DUI car crashes in which someone died. Since its inception, the unit has prosecuted more than 130 cases.