No - CollisionZone

Oklahoma Highway Patrol Lt. Bill Reitz of Kingfisher called his agency’s 16-hour saturation patrol Friday of Kingfisher County’s most dangerous traffic routes “a huge success.”

A total of 28 troopers were deployed in various shifts from 4 a.m. to 8 p.m. in “specific high collision areas” along U.S. 81 and state highways 51 and 3/33 within the county’s borders.

“We realize that the increased commercial vehicle and oilfield traffic in Kingfisher County has created a more dangerous environment on the highways for the motoring public,” Reitz said.

“Our objective was to present increased visibility in high traffic areas with an enforcement emphasis on speed and other collision causation violations.

“This operation has the intent of trying to make highways safer in Kingfisher County.”

Reitz said the troopers were split up among the three highway zones, “but the bulk of the guys were assigned to 3/33 because that’s a major area of concern. We had 10 troopers assigned there”

An OHP airplane also was deployed to spot possible violations and report them to troopers on the ground.

Throughout the day, 313 vehicles were pulled over, for a total of 381 enforcement violations, Reitz said.

Among the alleged violations, 256 resulted in warnings and 125 in written citations, he said.

The vast majority of the drivers pulled over (232) were speeding, 28 involved seatbelt violations, seven were drug-related contacts and one was driving under the influence of alcohol, Reitz said.

Officers from the motor carrier enforcement section (who typically patrol in SUVs), also participated Friday and randomly pulled over commercial vehicles for possible compliance violations.

Unlike OHP troopers on regular traffic duty, troopers assigned to the size and weight division can pull commercial vehicles over at any time to inspect for proper paperwork, that the load is properly documented and permitted and check for mechanical and other safety violations.

“Regular OHP also had some contact with CMVs on Friday, but the problem with trucks is, once we start a saturated patrol like that, they figure it out real quick and get the word out to each other,” Reitz said. “You’re not going to catch them for traffic violations but the size and weight guys can stop them without having probable cause.”

A total of 18 commercial motor vehicles were stopped and inspected and eight violations were noted, he said.

Reitz said the increased enforcement quickly drew the attention of the public, and in addition to a number of “thumbs up” from passing motorists, OHP also received favorable comments on its Facebook page.

“It was well received by public for the most part,” he said. “We’ll definitely be doing this again – most likely next month.”