Delaware State Police

Superintendent Colonel William D. Crotty

“I-95 Drive to Save Lives” and “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware” Traffic Initiatives Friday, April 5th – Sunday, April 7th, 2019

Date Posted: Sunday, March 31st, 2019

The Delaware State Police in partnership with the Delaware Office of Highway Safety are joining forces with other participating Delaware law enforcement agencies in the “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware Campaign and the National Distracted Driving Awareness Month- 2019.” It is a multi-jurisdictional and high-visibility traffic enforcement initiative that is meant to increase traffic enforcement presence as well as enhance safety efforts across the State of Delaware from Friday, April 5^th– Sunday, April 7^th, 2019.

The “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware/ National Distracted Driving Awareness Month” campaign’s operational goal is to achieve increased highly visible traffic enforcement across the approximate 96 miles of the State of Delaware. This initiative will be a contributing effort to support the International Association of Chiefs of Police (IACP) initiative, “The Drive to Save Lives Campaign” and its goal to reduce traffic deaths and injuries across the U.S. The emphasis of this initiative will be to change the high-risk behaviors of motorists, such as distracted driving, impaired driving, speeding, unsafe driving behaviors of the operators of large trucks/buses and the failure of motorists and passengers alike to wear seat-belts.

The participating Delaware agencies in the “Drive to Save Lives in Delaware” include: Bethany Beach PD, Cheswold PD, Dagsboro PD, Delaware Capitol PD, Delaware City PD, Delaware River and Bay Authority, Delaware State Police, Dover PD, Elsmere PD, Felton PD, Georgetown PD, Greenwood PD, Harrington PD, Laurel PD, Milford PD, Millsboro PD, Milton PD, New Castle County PD, Ocean View PD, Rehoboth Beach PD, Selbyville PD, Smyrna PD, Wyoming PD and University of Delaware PD

In 2014 the IACP initiated an effort to significantly reduce the more than 33,000 highway deaths, which occurred annually on U.S. roadways. The state police and highway patrol leaders from IACP Division of State and Provincial Police have led a sustained data-driven effort since 2014. The IACP leaders’ goal was to change the high-risk behaviors of motorists in order to decrease the number of crashes through “education and awareness, partnerships, and high-visibility traffic enforcement”. The IACP leaders initiated the effort in 2014 and declared it should be an ongoing effort to prevent the many deaths that occur on our roadways each year.

Interstate 95 (I-95) is approximately 1920 miles in length and is currently considered one of the deadliest highways in the country. It carries over 72,000 vehicles for its average daily traffic (with peak daily traffic over 300,000 vehicles) and it has over 10,000 vehicles for its average daily truck traffic (with peak daily truck traffic being over 31,000), per the I-95 Corridor Coalition. Also, one in 10 highway deaths occurred in a crash involving a large truck and most of the victims of the fatal crashes were passenger vehicle occupants. (IIHS/HLDI)

There were 37,461 traffic fatalities in 2016 with 18% of the involved drivers speeding at the time of the crash. Twenty seven percent of the fatal victims were in a crash involving at least one speeding driver. Additionally, 37% of all speeding drivers in fatal crashes were alcohol-impaired and 50% were unrestrained at the time of the crash. (NHTSA)

According to NHTSA, in 2016 one person every 50 minutes died in an alcohol-impaired vehicle crash. That equates to almost 29 people every day and a total of 10,497 deaths. Also, 1,233 children 14 years old and under died in drunk-driving crashes in 2016.

All 15 states that line Interstate 95 from Maine to Florida will be participating in the “I-95 Drive to Save Lives” campaign including: Florida Highway Patrol, North Carolina Highway Patrol, South Carolina Highway Patrol, Georgia Highway Patrol, Virginia State Police, Maryland State Police, Delaware State Police, Pennsylvania State Police, New Jersey State Police, New York State Police, Connecticut State Police, Rhode Island State Police, New Hampshire State Police, Massachusetts State Police and Maine State Police.

Rationale: After considering crash-related data and information from various sources, the following has been determined:

Nine percent of 2016’s fatal crashes involved distraction. In 2016 alone Distracted Driving led to 3,450 deaths and in 2015 391,000 people were injured in motor vehicle crashes involving distracted driving. Teens remain the largest age group involved in distracted driving-related fatal crashes. With Distracted Driving being proven to be a grossly underreported violation, these numbers are only the minimum. (NHTSA)
Per NHTSA, 10,000 lives per year are lost due to alcohol-related crashes. In 2017 one person every 48 minutes died in an alcohol-impaired vehicle crash. That equates to almost 30 people in the U.S. dying every day due to this deadly behavior. According to GHSA, there were more fatally-injured drivers who tested positive for drugs than alcohol. In 2015 57% of fatally-injured drivers were tested for drugs with 35.6% testing positive for marijuana- the highest detected drug.
Per NHTSA, the national seat belt use rate is at 90.1%; however, approximately 27.5 million people still refrain from buckling up. In 2016 48% of passenger vehicle occupants that were killed were also unrestrained. Also, drivers with alcohol and drugs in their systems were less likely to buckle up and more likely to speed and commit other traffic violations (FARS).
Per NHTSA, speeding has been involved in approximately one-third of all crash fatalities for over two decades. Speed was the cause of 9,717 deaths in 2017.