Published on Tuesday, November 21, 2006
in the Naples Daily News

Highway patrol to target speeders during holiday

The Florida Highway Patrol announced today that state troopers will be targeting speeders over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend as part of its ongoing Operation Safe Ride campaign.

The enforcement efforts are scheduled to kick off Wednesday, an FHP press release states. The operation’s goals are to increase compliance of posted speed limits and to reduce the number of speed-related deaths and injuries.

Traffic on Florida roadways is expected to increase significantly over the holiday weekend. In an effort to increase the FHP’s presence over the weekend, all sworn FHP personnel who are normally assigned to administrative duties will be reassigned to patrol duties on high-volume roadways.

During last year’s Thanksgiving holiday period, troopers issued more than 9,000 citations for traffic related violations. Of those, 7,368 drivers were cited for speeding, 1,630 for safety belt and child restraint violations, and 88 drivers were arrested for driving under the influence.

During last year’s holiday weekend, 66 people were killed in 54 crashes, the press release indicated. The FHP reported that 27 of those drivers were not wearing seat belts and 30 of the deaths were alcohol related.

Also, the Florida Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles and the FHP are offering Florida residents a new emergency contact information system. They system, which is available to anybody with a valid Florida driver’s license or identification card, allows people to voluntarily provide emergency contact information online.

Law enforcement officers will then have immediate access to the information in case of an emergency.

For more information on the system, visit http://www.flhsmv.gov.