Wednesday, January 7, 2015

CCSO Announces Peak Season Effort To Curb Crashes, ID Violators


The busy winter tourist season is underway in Collier County.

And that means more people on the roads and more traffic accidents.

With that in mind, the Collier County Sheriff’s Office launched an effort this week aimed at reducing the number of vehicle accidents along routes identified as high-crash areas and identifying violators.

Using a data driven approach, Collier County Sheriff Kevin Rambosk has identified multiple intersections and roadways in the North Naples area that over the past 12 months have carried more than 40 percent of all of traffic crashes in Collier County.

“Of these crashes, approximately 80 percent are the result of careless or inattentive driving,” said Lt. Mike Dolan of the sheriff’s Safety Traffic Enforcement Bureau (STEB).

Sheriff Rambosk has directed STEB to work with Patrol units to conduct daytime wolf pack operations for the purpose of:

* Responding to traffic crashes in an expedited manner, thus clearing up traffic congestion and reducing patrol response times to crimes in progress and calls for assistance.

* Conducting aggressive driving wolf pack operations where traffic violators are pulled over and educated. This education may be in the form of a verbal warning, a written warning, a traffic citation, or a driver re-evaluation.

The program is designed to address high-volume traffic ways during January, February, March and April, traditionally peak traffic season in Collier County.

Look for STEB and Patrol units to be working the main corridors in the North Naples areas with an emphasis on areas including Airport-Pulling Road, Pine Ridge Road, Immokalee Road, Livingston Road and Vanderbilt Beach Road.

“We will be using a number of different and creative strategies to identify aggressive drivers,” said Lt. Rich Hampton, who supervises the sheriff’s North Naples substation.

Some marked patrol cars will be used, unmarked vehicles, as well as a cadre of marked police motorcycles. All of the deputies working this detail are certified in the use of radar and laser speed measuring devices, as well are certified in traffic crash investigations.