MONMOUTH: Monmouth Police Department/Warren County Sheriff to conduct extra patrols in May





Daily Review Atlas
Sat May 30, 2009, 11:57 AM CDT
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MONMOUTH – Monmouth Police Chief Brad Zeigler and Sheriff Martin Edwards announced that Monmouth police officers and Sheriff Deputies will be conducting extra patrols during May in conjunction with a national campaign.
Officers and deputies will be conducting roadside safety checkpoints, seat belt enforcement zones, saturation patrols and speed enforcement zones to enforce all restraint and speeding laws.
Officers and deputies will also be targeting impaired drivers and their risk taking actions.
Traffic accidents remain the number one cause of death for young adults.
The behavior that younger adults take while driving increase their possibility of being in a traffic crash.
The patrols conducted by the Monmouth Police Department and Warren County Sheriffs Office are designed to target these risk taking actions.
Consider these statistics:
• 42,642 people were killed on the nation’s highways in 2006; for young people ages 2–34, motor vehicle crashes are currently the leading cause of death, far out pacing crime and disease related causes.
• In 2004 alone, 1,603 children, ages 8–15, were killed in motor vehicle crashes; whereas in the same year and age group, 426 children were victims of homicide.
• Worn correctly, seat belts reduce the risk of fatal injury by 45 percent for front seat passenger car occupants and by 60 percent for pickup truck, SUV, and mini-van occupants.
• An estimated 15,383 lives were saved by seat belt use in 2006; during the five-year period from 2002 through 2006, seat belts are estimated to have saved the lives of 75,000 people.
• High-visibility enforcement of seat belt laws, such as the annual “Click It or Ticket” mobilization, has been highly effective at raising the seat belt usage rate: the national usage rate increased from 58 percent in 1994 to 82 percent in 2007.
• Nearly one-fifth (18%) of all motor vehicle occupants still do not buckle up: nighttime drivers, young males and teens are among those least likely to wear seat belts, which greatly increases the risk of death for members of these groups.
Funds are provided by the National Highway and Traffic Safety Administration and are administered by the Illinois Department of Transportation Division of Traffic Safety.
If you have any questions regarding these programs, contact Sgt. Bratcher, program coordinator, at 309-734-8383.