Driving under the influence was the top reason for vehicle crashes in Mountain View last year, a trend that the Mountain View Police Department is looking to reverse with a $75,000 state grant that will help pay police overtime for traffic and DUI enforcement efforts, training and education.
In 2024, there were 336 reported collisions in Mountain View, 62 of which were primarily caused by driving under the influence, according to a report presented to the City Council earlier this month. Unsafe turns, unsafe speeds and failure to yield were also identified as frequent primary causes for crashes.
The Mountain View police transparency dashboard, which provides data about traffic collisions going back to 2022, shows that driving under the influence was the primary cause of more crashes in 2024 than in the previous two years. In 2023, DUI was the primary collision factor in 42 crashes. In 2022, there were 48 such crashes.
Mountain View police Lt. Laurina Holt told the Voice that DUI-related offenses typically occur on weekends, a trend that she cited from police data and her observations of working weekend shifts.
“We have a pretty lively downtown atmosphere, which the city is really proud of,” Holt said. “Unfortunately, the downside of that is where there’s a good time, people drink alcohol and that leads to DUIs.”
The $75,000 grant will help support directed patrol efforts to improve public safety not just for drivers but also pedestrians and bicyclists, Holt said. In September, police stepped up enforcement efforts for pedestrian safety month. Officers made 108 vehicle stops, 14 pedestrian stops and issued 81 citations for failure to yield to pedestrians, Holt said.
“There’s a huge push for environmental safety and sustainability in our city and so for that reason, we want to ensure that our pedestrians and folks on bicycles and scooters and other forms of transportation are just as safe as people riding in motor vehicles,” Holt said.
According to Holt, education and outreach are as important as enforcement. Recently, police received a tip that there were a lot of speed violations occurring around Central Expressway and Rengstorff Avenue. Officers saturated the area to look for violations and issue citations, but they also provided education on how to drive safely, Holt said.
“We’re really happy with the grant and the opportunity to use funds like that for something positive, and hopefully get our numbers down,” she said.
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These guys don’t need more hours at time and a half pay to do their job. Why should we give them more money when they can’t even do their day job?
If they started writing more tickets, which they stopped doing during the pandemic, people would be on point. I read in their transparency report they are issuing 5 citations per day….across all of Mountain View.
Fair enough, what was the citation rate pre-pandemic?
Enforcement is one part of it, sure, but what’s really needed is safer street infrastructure for people to walk and bike, and for more robust transit. Having genuinely reliable and safe alternatives to driving, especially on corridors near downtown/Castro St., is the only real way to prevent these crashes from happening in the first place.