The La Porte Police Department ran 30 hours of Operation Pull Funded seat belt patrols between February 12 and February 21. Officers working these patrols targeted motorists that are not wearing seat belts or had children who were not properly restrained.
During these patrols, officers wrote 39 citations and 61 warnings. Of the citations, 35 were for seat belt violations; two were for speeding; one was for a driver’s license violation and one was for texting.
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.
We experienced some bad weather over Valentine’s Day weekend again this year, but nothing nearly as severe as in 2015. We are doing a little better in terms of total crashes so far this February probably due to the milder weather. From February 1 – 23 in 2015, we investigated 64 property damage crashes and nine personal injury crashes. In 2016 during the same period we investigated 45 property damage and 10 personal injury crashes.
The next planned Operation Pull Over traffic safety patrols will be run during Operation Pull Over Blitz #85 which runs from March 4 – 27. During Blitz #85, which is a nationwide event, officers from the La Porte Police Department will work 100 hours of extra patrols targeting drivers that exhibit aggressive or dangerous driving behaviors.
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.