‘Take Back Our Highways' Saves Lives

Op-Ed

‘Take Back Our Highways' Saves Lives

By
Governor Bob Riley

The first report I see when I get to the office every morning is the daily highway safety report. It shows the number of crashes, injuries and deaths that occurred on Alabama's roadways the previous day and how those numbers compare to that same day over the last four years. I can't tell you how frustrating it was to see those numbers increase.

Fortunately, that has begun to change. Now Alabama is moving in the right direction on highway safety. Deaths on our roadways in 2007 fell nine percent from 2006, and so far this year the number of highway fatalities has dropped 19 percent compared to this time last year.

This welcome trend began two years ago when, in an unprecedented effort, we decided to collectively pool the resources of several state agencies engaged in highway safety and stepped up their efforts to stop the carnage taking place on our roadways.

The Department of Transportation has installed barriers on interstate medians, significantly reducing the number of deaths from cross-median crashes. As part of the department's annual resurfacing program, two extra feet per lane are being added on many of our two-lane highways to help reduce run off crashes.

But probably the most prominent of these safety efforts is the Take Back Our Highways campaigns. These safety enforcement campaigns place every available state trooper on patrol, including those normally assigned to other duties. By doing this, we increase the number of troopers on our highways by about 150. The strength of this force is multiplied by local law enforcement agencies throughout the state that increase their patrols during these safety blitzes.

We've had two Take Back Our Highways campaigns so far, and there's no doubt they work. There are people alive today because of these intensive, aggressive safety operations. Traffic deaths in Alabama have decreased when we've undertaken these week-long campaigns. When other states saw how effective Take Back Our Highways was, it got their attention. Now Mississippi and Tennessee are our partners, timing their own Take Back Our Highways campaigns to coincide with ours.

Because Take Back Our Highways has saved lives, we have launched it for a third time running from Aug. 18-25. During this week, troopers will be out in force utilizing proven safety initiatives such as line patrols, sobriety checkpoints and saturation patrols. To maximize their effectiveness, they will target corridors where statistics tell us most traffic crashes occur. Plus, they will have new tools this year thanks to a cooperative effort that includes the Department of Forensic Sciences and the Department of Economic and Community Affairs: BAT mobiles. These are nine specially equipped vehicles for blood alcohol testing. These new enforcement assets will play a key role in helping troopers take drunk and drugged drivers off our highways.

Take Back Our Highways does attract some criticism from those who believe it is done strictly to write tickets, but that criticism is wrong. If our goal was to write as many tickets as possible, then we would simply launch these safety campaigns without ever telling anyone ahead of time. In each instance when we've had a Take Back Our Highways campaign, we have given Alabama motorists plenty of "warning" and told them exactly when they would take place.

That's because we want motorists to be prepared and to change their driving habits. Those who don't normally wear their seat belts know there is a greater chance they'll get caught that week, so they start wearing seat belts. Those who habitually drive recklessly slow down that week and take extra care. Changing driver decisions and driving behavior is critical to improving highway safety, and these safety blitzes help drivers to change their bad driving habits, hopefully for the long-term.

It is my hope no one gets ticketed during Take Back Our Highways. That would mean troopers found no one in violation of our laws. That would mean our highways were safer than ever.

No, it's not about writing tickets. Take Back Our Highways is done for one reason and one reason only: it saves lives. Nothing is more important than that.

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