Alabama law enforcement agencies recently conducted a traffic safety initiative called ‘Take Back Our Highways’ that led to a reduction in traffic fatalities. The Department of Public Safety announced that over the 10-day campaign that ended on Memorial Day, there were 16 fatalities, a drop of 11 from last year’s total during the same period of time.
The safety effort included Alabama state troopers, local police departments and sheriff’s departments, as well as troopers from Florida, Georgia, Tennessee and Mississippi. About 200 additional officers were placed on patrol, over and above the number assigned to regular patrols. The focus was on those speeding, not wearing their seatbelt, following too closely, failure to yield the right of way and driving drunk in Alabama.
The DPS director credits the safety campaign with changing driver behavior, pointing out that an estimated 300 lives have been saved since the ‘Take Back Our Highways’ program was started in 2007. During the 2010 effort, a total of 24,755 arrests were made. This included 6,907 for seatbelt violations, 8,286 for speeding and 362 for driving under the influence in Alabama.
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