Police Step Up Holiday Patrols

RICHMOND – Those traveling Virginia's highways this Fourth of July holiday weekend can expect to see more State Police troopers on the highways. As part of the annual Operation Combined Accident Reduction Effort, known as Operation C.A.R.E., the Virginia State Police will have 75 percent of its uniformed workforce on patrol Friday, July 1, through Monday, July 4, 2011.

"Having extra troopers on our interstates and other highways helps ensure a safer holiday weekend for all motorists," said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police Superintendent. "But we also ask for the motoring public's help in preventing traffic crashes and deaths, as it is up to ever driver to comply with posted speed limits, avoid distractions and require everyone in his or her vehicle to be safely buckled up. Working together we can continue Virginia's significant decline in traffic fatalities."

As of Thursday, June 30, 2011, preliminary numbers report 318 traffic deaths on Virginia's highways; compared to 360 this date in 2010. In all of 2010, a total of 740 men, women and children were killed in traffic crashes statewide.

During the 2010 July 4th holiday, Virginia State Police's Operation C.A.R.E. enforcement efforts resulted in the following: 152 DUI arrests; 10,880 speeders and another 2,755 reckless drivers being cited; and 977 individuals being charged for failing to buckle up. There were also 383 child safety violations cited by state troopers.

State police investigated 744 traffic crashes during last year's Independence Day weekend. There were a total of six traffic deaths during the holiday weekend in 2010. In 2009, nine people were killed and 10 people were killed during the July 4th weekend in 2008.

Operation C.A.R.E. is a state-sponsored, national program emphasizing safe driving through the reduction of traffic injuries and fatalities, occupant restraint safety and impaired driving prevention. The 2011 statistical counting period for the holiday weekend begins at 12:01 a.m. Friday, July 1, 2011, and concludes at midnight Monday, July 4, 2011.

With the increased presence of troopers on the interstates, motorists are reminded to comply with Virginia's "Move Over" law. The state law requires drivers to change to another travel lane or, when not able to, to cautiously pass emergency personnel stopped on the side of the road. The law also applies to emergency response vehicles, highway maintenance vehicles and tow trucks equipped with flashing amber lights.

Virginia State Police Remind Teens To BUCKLE UP!

New July 1 Seatbelt Law Focuses on 16 & 17-year-old Passenger Safety

As of July 1, 2010, in Virginia:

Children from birth through seven years of age must be safely secured in a child safety restraint (to include booster seats).

Those passengers between the ages of eight and 17 must wear a seat belt while riding in the backseat and front seat of a vehicle.

Existing law requires everyone sitting in the front seat of a vehicle to be buckled up.

"We lose far too many young people in traffic crashes on Virginia’s highways because they fail to use a seat belt," said Colonel W. Steven Flaherty, Virginia State Police Superintendent. "Too many teens think they are invincible; yet no one is a match for what can happen when unbuckled and involved in a motor vehicle collision. The few seconds it takes to buckle up could save your life on the road."

In 2009, 51 young people between the ages of 15 and 20 were killed in traffic crashes statewide. None of them was buckled up.* The death rate was slightly higher in 2008 when 72 unrestrained teens and young adults between 15 and 20 years of age lost their lives in traffic crashes.*

Throughout the summer months, Virginia State Police will be concentrating on occupant restraint violations through enforcement and education as part of the Click It or Ticket campaign. Statistics show that with the proper use of seat belts, drivers and passengers are 40 percent less likely to be fatally injured during a traffic crash.*

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Source: Virginia Highway Safety Office, DMV

National Seatbelt Effort

From May 24th until June 6th, several police agencies across the nation will be stepping up enforcement of seatbelt usage. The Virginia effort, called "Buckle Up Now Virginia", will mainly focus on children who should be buckled up in a child booster or safety seat.

"You can buckle up a child in a seat belt, booster seat or child safety seat in two seconds," explains Accomack County Sheriff's Deputy Eric Nottingham. "But in an entire lifetime you couldn't get over the grief of a child in your care not buckled up and dying in a traffic crash."

Accomack County Sheriff Larry Giddens says officers will be on the look out for seatbelt usage and that checkpoints will be set up to enhance the awareness.

The mobilization, expected to involve more than 10,000 police agencies, is supported by $8 million in national advertising funded through Congress and coordinated by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA).

NHTSA statistics also show that those least likely to buckle-up are teens, young adults, males, nighttime riders, motorists traveling on rural roads and individuals traveling in pick-up trucks.

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