Keep Your Cool This Summer - Avoid Heated Driving
DC, MD and VA Law Enforcement Crackdown on Aggressive Driving
Summer Means Increased Aggressive Driving!
WASHINGTON, June 20 -- The following is being issued by Smooth Operator:
What: News conference for 2005 Smooth Operator campaign featuring law enforcement from Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia. With summer being the season of aggressive driving, more than 80 state and local law enforcement agencies are banding together to keep residents safe. With children out of school, construction activities ramping up, the influx of tourists, and area traffic woes people need to keep their cool this summer and avoid driving aggressively. Who: Lieutenant Colonel Suzanne Devlin, Fairfax County Police Department Inspector Kevin Keegan, Metropolitan Police Department (District of Columbia) Lieutenant Colonel Michael J. Fischer, Maryland State Police Bob Marbourg, Traffic Reporter, WTOP Radio Why: The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) estimates that aggressive driving behaviors -- speeding, tailgating, running red lights and stop signs, improper passing and other dangerous driving maneuvers -- has cost billions of dollars and may be responsible for one-third of injury crashes and two-thirds of highway fatalities. Projected to Maryland, Virginia and the District of Columbia, more than 1,000 regional highway fatalities annually may be associated with aggressive driving behaviors. Speeding is a factor in 31 percent of all fatal crashes, killing an average of 1,000 Americans every month. NHTSA estimates the economic cost to society of speed-related crashes to be more than $40 billion each year. The DC area has 3rd worst congestion in America, according to the Texas Transportation Institute (TTI) -- up from 4th place in 2003. In the last 21 years, the average commuter saw time lost to traffic delays increase from 21 hours a year to 69 hours. When: Tuesday, June 21, 2005 -- FIRST OFFICIAL DAY OF SUMMER! 10:45 a.m. -- News conference 11:15 a.m. -- Ride-alongs with law enforcement officers Where: Metropolitan Police Department Second District Building 3320 Idaho Ave, NW Washington, D.C. 20016