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The Delaware State Police in partnership with the Delaware Office of Highway Safety are joining forces with other participating Delaware law enforcement agencies in the “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware/Back to School Safety Month- 2018” campaign. It is a multi-jurisdictional, high-visibility traffic enforcement initiative that is meant to increase traffic enforcement presence and efforts across the State of Delaware from Friday, August 3rd through Saturday, August 4th, 2018.
The “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware” operational goal is to achieve increased highly visible traffic enforcement across the approximate 96 miles of the State of Delaware. This initiative will be a contributing effort to support the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) initiative, “The Drive to Save Lives Campaign” and its goal to reduce traffic deaths and injuries across the U.S. The emphasis of this initiative will be to change the high-risk behaviors of motorists, such as distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding, unsafe driving behaviors of the operators of large trucks/buses and the failure of motorists and passengers alike to wear seatbelts.
The participating Delaware agencies in the “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware” include: Camden PD, Cheswold PD, Clayton PD, Dagsboro PD, Delaware Capitol PD, Delaware City PD, Delaware River and Bay Authority, Delaware State Police, Dover PD, Elsmere PD, Greenwood PD, Harrington PD, Kenton PD, Laurel PD, Milford PD, Milton PD, New Castle City PD, New Castle County PD, Newport PD, Ocean View PD, Rehoboth Beach PD, Selbyville PD and University of Delaware PD.
In 2014 the IACP initiated an effort to significantly reduce the more than 33,000 highway deaths, which occurred annually on U.S. roadways. The state police and highway patrol leaders from IACP Division of State and Provincial Police have led a sustained data-driven effort since 2014. The IACP leaders’ goal was to change the high-risk behaviors of motorists in order to decrease the number of crashes through “education and awareness, partnerships, and high-visibility traffic enforcement”. The IACP leaders initiated the effort in 2014 and declared it should be an ongoing effort to prevent the many deaths that occur on our roadways each year.
Interstate 95 (I-95) is approximately 1920 miles in length and is currently considered one of the deadliest highways in the country. It carries over 72,000 vehicles for its average daily traffic (with peak daily traffic over 300,000 vehicles) and it has over 10,000 vehicles for its average daily truck traffic (with peak daily truck traffic being over 31,000), per the I-95 Corridor Coalition. Also, one in 10 highway deaths occurred in a crash involving a large truck and most of the victims of the fatal crashes were passenger vehicle occupants. (IIHS/HLDI)
There were 37,461 traffic fatalities in 2016 with 18% of the involved drivers speeding at the time of the crash. Twenty-seven percent of the fatal victims were in a crash involving at least one speeding driver. Additionally, 37% of all speeding drivers in fatal crashes were alcohol-impaired and 50% were unrestrained at the time of the crash. (NHTSA)
According to NHTSA, in 2016 one person every 50 minutes died in an alcohol-impaired vehicle crash. That equates to almost 29 people every day and a total of 10,497 deaths. Also, 1,233 children 14 years old and under died in drunk-driving crashes in 2016.
All 15 states that line Interstate 95 from Maine to Florida will be participating in the “I-95 Drive to Save Lives” campaign including: Florida Highway Patrol, North Carolina Highway Patrol, South Carolina Highway Patrol, Georgia Highway Patrol, Virginia State Police, Maryland State Police, Delaware State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, New Jersey State Police, New York State Police, Connecticut State Police, Rhode Island State Police, New Hampshire State Police, Massachusetts State Police and Maine State Police.
Source: DSP