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FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: May 23, 2001
FOR FURTHER INFORMATION CONTACT:

Enforcement Effort Focuses On Seat Belt Safety And Inattentive & Dangerous Drivers

       W. Trenton - Colonel Carson J. Dunbar, Jr., Superintendent of the New Jersey State Police and Director Peter J. O'Hagan, Division of Highway Traffic Safety, today announced that state troopers and traffic enforcement officers throughout the state will increase traffic patrol responsibilities and will also participate in various state and national programs geared to reduce motor vehicle accidents and to promote safe-driving practices throughout the upcoming Memorial Day holiday weekend.

      With over 34,000 miles of highway cris-crossing the state and thousands of motorists driving millions of miles during the holiday period, state troopers, municipal police officers and highway traffic safety personnel will be busy "around-the-clock" responding to traffic-related emergencies and working to reduce fatal accidents. Col. Dunbar and Director O'Hagan encouraged Memorial weekend drivers to stay alert, reminding that state troopers and county and municipal police officers will step-up patrol activity on state, county and local roadways, interstate highways and the toll roads - the New Jersey Turnpike, Garden State Parkway and Atlantic City Expressway.

       Specifically, state troopers will focus patrol responsibilities and enforcement attention on the inattentive and dangerous driver - considered the single largest contributing factor (and most under reported) in motor vehicle crashes, especially during extended holiday periods when there are many more distractions competing against the drivers attention. Inattentive or distracted driving includes the use of communications devices, eating, reading or any activity that takes the driver's attention from his/her driving responsibilities.

       Additionally, state troopers will be assigned to high visibility tactical patrol units as they monitor traffic using state-of-the-art speed enforcement technology. Specialized DWI (Driving While Intoxicated) patrol units will be setting-up sobriety checkpoints at numerous sites along state and county roadways and will be on patrol to identify the drunk and drinking driver.

      Dunbar and O'Hagan noted that state troopers and many local police departments will participate in "Operation ABC Mobilization - a national traffic enforcement effort aimed at ticketing reckless adults who put themselves and their children at risk by failing to wear seat belts or properly restrain child passengers. The Division of Highway Traffic Safety reports that in 1999, 242 out of the 725 adults who died in fatal motor vehicle crashes were unrestrained and that nearly half of those fatalities were preventable if the driver had been wearing a seat belt.

       The 2001 Memorial holiday will also see state and local police participating in the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's "Buckle-Up America" program - a nationwide public information and education campaign aimed at raising the national seat belt usage rate from a national 71 percent compliance rate to 90 percent by the year 2005. (New Jersey's current seatbelt use rate is 74.2 percent.)

       Additionally, New Jersey troopers will greet troopers from Delaware, Maryland and Pennsylvania as part of a joint highway safety initiative dubbed ‘Hands Across The Border'- a high visibility effort which stations troopers at motorist service areas and information sites in the four states. The Memorial holiday border crossing safety and public information effort is scheduled for Fri., May 25th from 10:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m. The multi-jurisdictional effort is designed to heighten motorist awareness and stress safety practices during the upcoming holiday period as troopers from each state will distribute traffic safety information and promotional items.

       Troopers from the New Jersey State Police and from the Pennsylvania, Delaware and Maryland State Police will be located at the following rest areas along toll roads and interstate highways:

• New Jersey Turnpike Walt Whitman Service Area located at Milepost 29 southbound Troopers from the New Jersey State Police (Troop D Turnpike patrol and Troop A South Jersey patrol) will join troopers from the Delaware State Police, Maryland State Police and the Pennsylvania State Police.
• Pennsylvania Turnpike King of Prussia Service Area located at milepost 328. New Jersey troopers from Troop C Central Jersey patrol will join troopers from the PA State Police.
• Interstate 80 (North Jersey) Delaware Water Gap Information Center located at the first exit ramp coming into New Jersey from PA on I-80 east-bound and the last exit leaving New Jersey on I-80 west-bound. Troopers from the New Jersey State Police Troop B North Jersey patrol will staff the information center.
• Interstate 78 West (Central New Jersey) Welcome Center located on the west bound side of I-78 (located ½ mile into PA). Troopers from the New Jersey State Police Community Policing Unit and from the PA State Police will greet motorists at the I-78 welcome center.
• Interstate 95 - Delaware Delaware Rest Area in the center median located five miles south into Delaware from New Jersey. Troopers from the New Jersey State Police Recruiting and Community Policing Units, along with state troopers from Delaware, Maryland and PA, will greet motorists at the rest area.
• Interstate 95 - Maryland Chesapeake Service Area located at milepost 96 in the center median. Troopers from the New Jersey State Police Recruiting and Community Policing Units, along with troopers from the Maryland, Delaware and PA State Police will greet motorists at the service area.

       The 2001 Memorial Day holiday officially begins at 12:01 a.m. on Fri., May 25 and continues through midnight on Mon., May 28. During the 2000 Memorial Day holiday, six persons lost their lives in motor vehicle accidents along New Jersey roadways. To date (Jan. 1 - May 20), 229 people have died in traffic-related accidents compared to 255 highway deaths recorded during the same period last year (2000) - a 10.2 percent decrease.

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