FL - FHP to crack down on I-95 speeders Wed 26 & Thu 27

[StlouisX50]

FHP to crack down on I-95 speeders
Listen to this article or download audio file.Click-2-Listen

By Chuck McGinness

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Tuesday, February 27, 2007

If you like to speed and weave from lane to lane on the daily drive on Interstate 95, take note.

The Florida Highway Patrol will be out in force Wednesday and Thursday looking for you.

Operation Safe Ride is a two-day crackdown on speeding and aggressive driving, FHP Col. Chris Knight said. Troopers will employ a number of methods to track motorists including radar and unmarked cars.

Seven airplanes will fly over major highways to spot violators and radio the information to troopers on the road who will pull over the drivers.

"Most people today consider unsafe driving by others as a major personal threat to themselves and their families," Knight said.

Operation Safe Ride is part of FHP's overall campaign to reduce deaths and injuries on Florida's roadways.

[StlouisX50]

Operation Safe Ride snares 520 people for speeding, 19 for aggressive driving


Operation Safe Ride snares 520 people for speeding, 19 for aggressive driving

By Chuck McGinness

Palm Beach Post Staff Writer

Friday, March 02, 2007

Operation Safe Ride, the Florida Highway Patrol's two-day crackdown on bad driving, snared 520 people for speeding and 19 for aggressive driving in a five-county area that includes Palm Beach County.

A total of 1,143 citations were written during the campaign Wednesday and Thursday in Palm Beach, Broward, Martin, St. Lucie and Indian River counties, FHP Lt. Tim Frith said this morning. Last year, 1,019 tickets were written during Operation Safe Ride.

Statewide, the FHP issued 6,783 citations, including 3,445 for speeding, 132 for aggressive driving and 744 for seat-belt and child-restraint violations.

Will the crackdown change motorists' mindsets and get them to drive safer? Probably not, Firth said.

"The point we want to stress is that during the two days we didn't have any fatalities on (major) highways," he said. The only traffic fatality occurred during a rollover crash on U.S. 1 in Fort Pierce.

The FHP put all available troopers on the road for the campaign and tracked drivers using radar, unmarked cars and seven airplanes.

"If we had these kind of resources on a daily basis, we certainly could make a difference," Frith said.