Friday, September 01, 2000

Holiday patrols on full alert

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DUI checkpoints, planes and radar ready

By Terry Flynn
The Cincinnati Enquirer

        SPARTA, Ky. — Kentucky police took to the speedway and Ohio and Indiana police will take to the air — all to ensure safer, slower highways as Labor Day travelers race for that last big weekend.

Doing laps in formation at the Kentucky Speedway in Sparta Thursday, law enforcement vehicles from seven states send a message: They'll be out in force this holiday weekend. (Patrick Reddy photo) | ZOOM |

        Highways in Kentucky, Indiana and Ohio will once again receive extra attention from state police who want to make the roads safer through the four-day Labor Day weekend.

        Officials with all three state police departments said Thursday that additional state troopers will be deployed on interstates and state highways looking for speeders, drunken drivers, unrestrained children and other traffic violations.

        “We will have 80 percent of our available troopers on the highways through the holiday weekend,” said Lt. John Born of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. “We are supplementing regular shifts with federal overtime money to extend officers from eight-hour to 12-hour days.”

        Lt. Born said the state patrol will have 12 aircraft in the sky over Ohio highways during daylight checking motorists' speed.

        Some 400 law enforcement officers in more than 200 vehicles from Kentucky and surrounding states converged on Kentucky Speedway Thursday to kick off the “Team Law Enforcement” concept of mutual assistance for traffic safety enforcement over the holiday weekend. Officers from Kentucky, Ohio, Indiana, Tennessee, Missouri and West Virginia took part.

        “The concept is for city, county and state law enforcement officers, and officers from neighboring states, to work together to make the highways safer,” said Kentucky State Police Sgt. Tony Young.

        Sgt. Young said Kentucky State Police are stepping up enforcement efforts throughout the state, also using federal overtime funds to put more officerson the roads. “We are saturating the I-65 area in western Kentucky, where there have been a high number of fatalities this year,” he said.

        Indiana State Police Superin tendent Melvin Carraway said about 155 troopers will be added to the patrol force over the four-day period, todaythrough Monday throughout the state.

        The department will establish DUI saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints, and will use aircraft and high-performance unmarked cars to check for speeders. Ohio and Kentucky officials also said their officers would operate DUI checkpoints.

        Mr. Carraway said Indiana troopers will pay special attention to speeds in highway work zones where a high number of accidents have occurred.

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