For
Immediate Release
By
Authority of: Chief Paul M. Tiernan
Point of Contact:
Lt. Fred Nelson
302-366-7100
x3119, FNelson@newark.de.us
April 3, 2018 – The week of April
2nd the Newark Police Department will be working to raise awareness
of drivers in the City of Newark. Statistically, the primary contributing
factors of collisions in Newark continue to be those that frequently result
from inattention or last minute operator decisions resulting in a
collision. For the last three years, these have primarily been:
Inattentive Driving, Following Too Closely and Failure to Yield. In 2017,
these three offenses accounted for 706 of the 1460 reported collisions
(48%). Violations such as red lights, stop signs and speed continue to be
lesser prevalent causations of collisions by a significant margin.
The Newark Police Department
Traffic Unit routinely conducts team-approach projects, using high visibility
and high productivity enforcement, to encourage heightened awareness and
voluntary compliance on the part of drivers in the City of Newark.
Multiple officers will be conducting enforcement targeting cellphone and seatbelt
usage. An officer observes a violation from a static location and reports
it to officers who stop the vehicle – typically by “step-outs” – and issue a
citation, if appropriate. Additional violations, such as Failure to Obey
a Yield Sign or various equipment violations are frequently observed and cited
as well.
The week of April 2nd the Newark Police Traffic
and Special Operations Unit are conducting joint enforcement effort to cover
multiple locations within the jurisdiction simultaneously. The goals of
this initiative are to:
▪
Increase driver alertness and promote driver awareness resulting in more
attentive driving and a reduction in attention related collisions.
▪
Establish a noticeable police presence on the roadway from members of the
Traffic Enforcement Unit, the Special Operations Unit and additional uniformed
personnel.
▪
Conduct enforcement of attention based violations (i.e. cell phone
violations). ANY violations will be enforced (equipment, license &
registration, etc.).
As part of the initiative, which coincides with the Delaware
Office of Highway Safety Distracted Driving initiative, officers will
distribute the OHS Distracted Driving news release with citations for civil
violations related to distracted driving.
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