Police, PennDOT cracking down on aggressive driving
WAYNESBURG – Try not to roll through stop signs or run any red lights this month.
Until March 27, police are taking extra time to find aggressive drivers all over southwestern Pennsylvania.
“Police stations are partnering with the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation to crack down on aggressive driving,” said Timothy Hawfield, chief of the Waynesburg Borough Police Department.
Aggressive driving includes speeding, weaving through traffic, tailgating, and running red lights or signs or anything that puts other drivers or passengers at risk for injury or death is considered aggressive driving.
“They will target the areas where the most car crashes occur,” Hawfield said.
Although the Waynesburg Borough police are not participating in the crackdown, 19 municipal police departments and two state police troops will target 22 roadways, according to The Pittsburgh Channel online.
Hawfield said the roadways were selected through an aggressive driving crash analysis.
“Route 21 has more crashes and fatal crashes than any other state highway in the county,” Hawfield said.
He assumes both state Route 88 and Route 19 will be monitored for aggressive driving.
PennDOT distributed $2.1 million in federal funds to police agencies to fund this crackdown on aggressive driving.
According to The Pittsburgh Channel online, the money will pay for overtime and any other costs the participating police departments will have when participating in this aggressive driving crackdown.
Some of the police departments cooperating with PennDOT in the crackdown include the Pennsylvania State Police, Waynesburg Station; Pennsylvania State Police, Washington Station; Washington City Police; Washington Township Police; Pennsylvania State Police, Uniontown Station; and Perryopolis Borough Police in Fayette County.
Police and PennDOT officials said they feel that aggressive driving has become a problem.
Police departments participating in this initiative wrote 154,642 aggressive driving-related citations just last year, according to The Pittsburgh Channel online.
Of those citations, the most common offense was speeding, followed by disobedience to traffic control devices and signs.
“This [crackdown on aggressive driving] is a good thing,” said Hawfield.