MHP ‘blitz’ nets traffic offenders

Published 6:00 am Tuesday, December 30, 2003

Mississippi Highway Patrol officials said they were pleased withthe results of a four-day “blitz” on drunk drivers and otheroffenders that began Christmas Eve.

Staff Sgt. Rod Crawford, MHP Troop M public affairs officer,said the four days stretching from 6 p.m. Christmas Eve to midnightDec. 28 netted good results and made the roads safer for holidaytravelers. A federally-funded program to bolster safety during theholiday week by paying for additional troopers to establishroadblocks to check for drunk drivers and unlicensed drivers.

“That’s probably where we got the majority (of the ticketsissued) is at the driver’s license checkpoints,” he said.

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In all, Crawford said, by comparing this year’s four-day blitzwith statistics taken during a two-day blitz last year from 6 p.m.Dec. 23, 2002, to midnight Dec. 25, 2002, drunk driving arrestswere up and the total number of accidents was down. Troopers made12 driving under the influence (DUI) arrests in 2003 compared toonly three in 2002, and responded to 18 accidents in 2003 with 2002posting 11 accidents in the two days of that blitz.

A statistic Crawford was not pleased to see added this year wasin the category of fatal accidents. Although no fatal accidentswere reported during the 2002 blitz, in 2003, on Dec. 28, acommercial truck loaded with aviation fuel left the road andoverturned on U.S. Highway 61 three miles north of Woodville inWilkinson County, killing the driver.

Crawford said the statistics also indicate that people are nottaking the seat belt law seriously.

Sixteen seat belt law violations were recorded this year asopposed to only one last year. However, part of that increase canbe attributed by a more focused intent on the part of troopers.

“There was more of a concentrated effort on seat belts thisyear,” he said. “We’re looking at that much more seriously now.Seat belts have been proven to save lives.”

Some of the tickets were possibly the result of a new law passedearlier this year, he said. The law states children under eightyears of age must be restrained and those under four years of agemust be in a child restraint seat.

“This gets kids out of the rear of pickup trucks,” Crawfordsaid. “Since there are no seat belts in the back of a pickup, theycan’t be there.”

Although not required by the law, the trooper recommendedparents use booster seats when using seat belts on children ages4-8 to ensure the strap reaches across the chest correctly and doesnot cross along the neck.

The MHP is working diligently to ensure the safety of stateroads, Crawford said, and the federal assistance has allowedadditional troopers to participate. The extra manpower has giventhe agency more personnel to combat drunk drivers and otheroffenders.

“We’re doing a roadblock every night. Plain and simple,” hesaid. “We probably didn’t do that last year.”

Although the MHP released its report for the Christmas holiday,Crawford said the agency will continue to blitz traffic offendersuntil the end of the year.

“We are continuing until Jan. 4 our DUI Blitz, which is thefederally-funded program allowing our off-duty troopers to makecall backs that include radar enforcement and roadblocks daily,” hesaid.

Crawford said he expects to be able to release a report of theresults of the federally-funded program around Jan. 4.