The La Porte Police Department will be running 30 hours of Operation Pull Funded seat belt patrols between February 12 and February 21. Officers working these patrols will be targeting motorists that are not wearing seat belts or have children who are not properly restrained.
February was chosen to run these patrols because February 2015 had the highest number of traffic crashes of any month last year with 84 crashes or 12.44% of total for the year. Valentine’s Day 2015 was very notable because it was one of the worst days in terms of crashes that we have experienced in a long time due to a severe winter storm. Officers responded to a total of 15 calls regarding traffic crashes that day, with 13 of the crashes being reportable. Thirteen of the calls regarding crashes occurred between 10:49 AM and 12:36 PM. Of the 13 crashes that were reportable, 11 were property damage and two were personal injury crashes which injured total of five people.
“Valentine’s Day is coming up and one thing that you can do to show your love for your family is to ensure that you and they are properly restrained in order to lessen the chances of serious injury in the event that you are involved in a crash. Crashes can happen, even to the most careful of drivers, especially in the hazardous winter driving conditions that we are currently facing, so we need to buckle up to keep ourselves as safe as possible,” said Captain Tom Heath.
Operation Pull Over is a traffic safety grant program funded by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration and administered by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute. The goal of Operation Pull Over is to reduce traffic crashes injuries and fatalities by promoting passenger restraint use, and supporting impaired and dangerous driving enforcement.
For more information on Operation Pull Over and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute’s other programs and activities, please visit http://www.in.gov/cji.