Authorities target safety

Published 5:00 am Thursday, July 5, 2007

Rain may have dampened many activities this Fourth of July, butlaw enforcement agencies were still out in force to ensuresafety.

“It was fairly quiet. We only had about 15 calls from 5 p.m.Tuesday to midnight Wednesday,” said Lincoln County Sheriff SteveRushing.

The sheriff’s office received no fireworks complaints and wasnot asked to respond to any motor vehicle crashes, he said.

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Rushing said deputies did establish several checkpoints in aneffort to crack down on drunk drivers.

“We had a few set up in different areas of the county,” hesaid.

However, he was unable to say this morning how successful thoseefforts were.

“I’m still waiting on all the tickets to come in today, so itwould be hard to say,” Rushing said. “Overall, though, it was apretty quiet Fourth of July for us.”

Sgt. Rusty Boyd, public relations officer for the MississippiHighway Safety Patrol, said the agency issued a total of 235citations in Southwest Mississippi during the same period.

Among the citations were 11 arrests for driving under theinfluence and one for drug possession, he said.

The highway patrol established three checkpoints Tuesday night,but tackled the increased holiday traffic using a different method,he said.

“We had radar and line details working certain stretches ofhighway for a set period of time,” Boyd said.

Although officers were keeping a wary eye for drunk drivers,they were also concerned about safety, he said. Troopers targetedseat belt and traffic violations to encourage drivers to travelsafely.

The MHP also investigated eight motor vehicle collisions.