Officials from the La Porte Police Department today announced that 227 citations were issued in La Porte, IN during the 2012 Safe Family Travel, Blitz 73. From November 16 – December 2, 2012 the La Porte Police Department joined more than 250 law enforcement agencies across the state to conduct high-visibility impaired driving and seatbelt patrols. The goal of the effort was to reduce the number of motorists killed or injured on Indiana roadways during the Thanksgiving holiday season.
During this two-week mobilization, 100.5 hours of seatbelt patrols and 94 hours of impaired driving patrols were conducted by La Porte Police Department officers. As a result, 127 seat belt citations, 5 child restraint citations and a number of other citations were issued to motorists for various traffic offenses such as speeding, driving left of center, disregarding traffic signs/signals and texting while driving. There were 11 arrests made during the “Safe Family Travel” enforcement effort for Operating While Intoxicated and eight felony and four misdemeanor criminal arrests. Notable among the criminal arrests were one arrest for dealing heroin, one arrest for dealing cocaine, one arrest for dealing marijuana and one arrest for possession of cocaine. A total of 251 warnings were issued as well.
In 2011, there were 476 alcohol-related collisions in Indiana during the month of November, resulting in five fatalities. During the same month, there were 415 collisions reporting non-restraint use, resulting in 12 fatalities. There were 5,191 children ages 0-15 involved in collisions during the year - resulting in 3,951 reported injuries and 38 fatalities.
“The success of Safe Family Travel relies on thousands of Indiana law enforcement officers working thousands of overtime hours day and night enforcing Indiana traffic laws. The La Porte Police Department dedicated 194.5 hours of overtime to the effort to ensure that Hoosiers reached their destinations safely during the Thanksgiving holiday,” said Captain Tom Heath.