Traffic Crash Information
This June, the La Porte Police Department investigated 44 property damage and 10 personal injury traffic crashes. In June of 2012, the department investigated 38 property damage and 11 personal injury traffic crashes. Through the first six month of 2013, the department has investigated 252 property damage and 52 personal injury traffic crashes. In 2012, by this time the department had investigated 273 property damage and 68 personal injury traffic crashes and one fatal traffic crash. In 2012, 17 of the crashes in the first half of the year were alcohol related, while in the first half of 2013, 14 of the crashes were alcohol related. So far this year the most frequent locations for traffic crashes are:
- E Lincolnway/Boyd Boulevard – seven crashes.
- Pine Lake Avenue/Waverly Road – five crashes.
- Lincolnway/Indiana Avenue – five crashes.
- US 35/Boyd Boulevard – five crashes.
- Lincolnway/Michigan Avenue – four crashes.
Traffic Enforcement Information
During June of 2013, the officers of the La Porte Police Department worked 39 hours of aggressive driving enforcement during which they wrote 78 citations and 63 warnings. Most numerous among the citations were the 45 written for speeding and 20 written for seat belt violations. For July, we have 60 hours of Operation Pull Over funded seat belt patrols scheduled and will also be working a number of DUI: Taskforce Indiana funded impaired driving patrols along with the other agencies in the La Porte County DUI Taskforce.
During the first six months of 2012 the La Porte Police Department made 133 DUI arrests. During the same period in 2013, 78 DUI arrests were made. In 2012, we experienced an unusually high number of impaired driving related arrests. We are not really sure why this occurred, but hopefully the number of motorists that are driving impaired is decreasing and that is why the number of DUI arrests is down so far this year. The La Porte Police Department will continue working hard to enhance traffic safety in our community.