Oklahoma drivers beware. The Logan County Sheriff’s Office is teaming up with law enforcement agencies across the state between now and the busy Thanksgiving travel season to crack down on traffic safety violations.
State and local law enforcement will be out in force to remind all drivers and passengers to never drink and drive, always buckle up, obey the speed limit, and eliminate all distractions in the vehicle while driving.
This special enforcement crackdown is part of the state’s new More Cops. More Stops. campaign to help save more lives on Oklahoma’s roadways.
“We want everyone to be safe while traveling on Oklahoma’s roadways this busy Thanksgiving season,” said Sheriff Jim Bauman. “So we are teaming with other state and local law enforcement officials on this special ‘More Cops. More Stops.’ campaign to crackdown and strongly enforce our most basic and important highway safety laws.”
Sixty-nine percent of 18-to 34-year-old passenger vehicle occupants killed in Oklahoma crashes during 2009 were NOT wearing their seat belts at the time of the crash. “Not wearing your seat belt will get you a ticket, but we will also be cracking down on speeding and distracted driving, and especially on anyone caught drinking and driving,” said Sheriff Jim Bauman.
Sheriff Jim Bauman said nearly one-third of those killed on Oklahoma’s highways during 2009 involved drivers or motorcycle operators with a blood alcohol concentration (BAC) of .08 or above at the time of their deadly crash . In 2009, 133 people in Oklahoma died in crashes involving a 15-20 year old driver. Nearly 41% of those drivers had a BAC of .01 or above at the time of the fatal crash.
Oklahoma is teaming with the U.S. Department of Transportation, National Highway Traffic Safety Administration on this important national demonstration project, as one of only two states, to test the effectiveness of a new combined high visibility enforcement campaign designed to reduce drunk driving, boost seat belt use, and crack down on speeding and distracted driving, particularly among young adult males. Research and fatal crash statistics show that young adult males are most likely to practice high-risk behaviors in their vehicles, such as not wearing seat belts and/or drinking and driving.
I’m all for traffic enforcement but this is nothing new for the Logan County Sherriff’s Dept. They spend 90% of their time on traffic either parked at Hwy 33 and 105 running radar in a center median that has 3 signs that say stay off, in the city of Guthrie trying to hide behind trees which takes revenue away from the city. If the City Police can’t handle it then we need more City Police. They sit out on I35 running radar and playing Trooper at night with their lights off. Logan County being a fairly large county I would think we have plenty of rural areas to patrol and plenty of warrants that need to be served but instead we have a Sherriff that put the deputies out on traffic when we have Troopers to handle the state highways and City Police to handle the City. it’s time for a new Sherriff.