Beginning Monday, June 12, Wichita Police Department (WPD) personnel assigned to the Patrol West Bureau will increase traffic enforcement throughout the west quadrant of the city in an effort to reduce serious-injury crashes and traffic fatalities. Throughout the summer, a supervisor and four to eight officers will be assigned to traffic-enforcement projects at least three days each week. WPD officials will discuss details of the increased traffic enforcement during their daily 10 AM Thursday news briefing at City Hall, 455 N. Main.
Between January 1 and May 31, 2006, Patrol West personnel documented 1,422 traffic crashes. A significant number result in injury and/or death. The City of Wichita has documented 17 traffic deaths so far this year, eight in the west quadrant of the City, twice as many as any other quadrant. Eight of Wichita’s 25 high-accident intersections are located in Patrol West along major arterials, with 10 to 22 accidents reported at each intersection to date this year.
“We receive several traffic-related complaints each month from residents or employers on the west side,” said Captain Terry Nelson, Commander of the Patrol West Bureau. “It further causes alarm when traffic safety problems in some areas are of such concern that area residents applaud officers writing speeding tickets.”
The most common causes of traffic accidents are speed, inattentive driving, following to close, running red lights, fail to yield right of way, unsafe lane changes and improper turns. Officers will execute speed-enforcement projects along major arterials as well as high-accident intersections. Several traffic-control measures will be used.
For questions, contact Captain Terry Nelson or Sergeant Jerry Quick at the Patrol West Bureau, 661 N. Elder, 337-9400.
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