In California and various other parts of the country that Interstate 80 runs through, officers will be using the final seven days of July as a platform with which to crack down on those drivers whose actions could compromise safety along the aforementioned highway.
The I-80 Challenge Highway Safety Initiative, as it’s being called, will find numerous law enforcement organizations targeting a variety of activities. The various agencies will be taking a zero tolerance approach to infractions. As a Lieutenant Colonel with the Wyoming Highway Patrol stated, the ultimate goal will be to reduce the number of deaths to none at all. The officer explained that the end of July tends to be one of the most dangerous times of the year.
Among those offenses that will receive attention are speeding and other dangerous and potentially aggressive maneuvers. Drivers not wearing a seatbelt may be ticketed, as could those drivers who are intoxicated at the wheel or who insist on using their cellphones to the detriment of their driving ability.
52% of the 21,000 persons who died in a car wreck in 2011 are thought to have not had on their seatbelts at the time of the incidents. Almost 10,000 died in a crash where speeding was a factor, nearly the same amount had intoxication play into the crash, and 3,330 could be partially attributed to distraction.