Slow down, stay alert and get the heck off your phone! Tomorrow, beginning at 6:30 am, the Seattle Police Department, Washington State Patrol and Washington Liquor Control Board will be out in full-force on Aurora Avenue to conduct a major traffic patrol. Developed to deter aggressive and distracted driving on Aurora, the patrol will take place all day Thursday and through the evening. According to Jim Curtain of the Aurora Traffic Safety Project, “Specifically the patrol will focus on the behaviors we know are contributing to collisions, injuries and deaths along Aurora such as speeding, following too close, unsafe turns, DUI, cell phone usage and other in car distractions.”
More details from Jim’s email:
More than 50 Seattle Police Department personnel will be participating including motorcycle and squad car units, the aggressive drivers response team and the DUI squad. Joining SPD will be six patrol units from the Washington State Patrol and three teams from the Washington Liquor Control Board. A unified command center will be established at 125th and Aurora.
Aurora is a busy thoroughfare and thriving community. Making it safer means getting the safe driving message out to all drivers on Aurora. Our goal is to change driver behavior to make Aurora safer; not write citations. A big part of achieving this goal is getting the safe driving reminder out to drivers well before the emphasis patrol. To do this, we are talking to business owners and neighbors along Aurora now about the patrol and asking you to spread the word that everyone can help improve safety.
The April 14th patrol is part of the Aurora Traffic Safety Project – a two year effort to improve safety through engineering improvements, increased enforcement, and educational outreach. Between April 2005 and March 2008, 1,581 collisions occurred on Aurora between the Battery Street Tunnel and N 145th Street – that’s nearly 46 collisions per month. Since the start of this project in 2009, collisions on Aurora have been reduced by more than 20 percent.
Please tell your friends and neighbors about the patrol and the importance of driving safe along Aurora and all of our city streets. For more information about the Aurora Traffic Safety Project visit www.seattle.gov/aurora.
Thank you,
Jim Curtin on behalf of the Aurora Traffic Safety Project
Very good to know. Thanks for posting.