Over the
Memorial Day holiday weekend, deputies of the Henry County Sheriff’s
Office conducted overtime traffic enforcement on primary highways
throughout Henry County on a grant awarded by the Missouri Department
of Transportation / Division of Highway Safety, for the purpose of
conducting traffic stops for hazardous moving violations during this
period. Working in a combined effort with the Missouri Coalition for
Roadway Safety, the goal of all participating agencies is to reduce
the number of fatalities as a result of motor vehicle accidents on
state highways each year.
The grant application was completed and submitted by Major Rob Hills, which awarded the Sheriff’s Office just under $ 5,500 dollars of overtime salaries, to pay deputies for additional enforcement activities over the holiday travel periods in 2014 and 2015, including various weekends throughout the summer months when traffic totals peak in Henry County.
The grant
has been utilized over the Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Year’s
Eve holidays in 2014, along with the Memorial Day holiday this year,
which so far has accounted for 235 moving violations and 70
non-moving violations being encountered by deputies during saturation
periods, to include two (2) arrests for driving while intoxicated,
five (5) arrests for drivers with revoked / suspended licenses, three
(3) arrests for drug-related charges and four (4) arrests for
outstanding warrants.
“During holiday periods and summer weekends, our local highways are being utilized by many more travelers than what we normally encounter, however our families and friends still have to use these same roadways every day, regardless of the day or the occasion. In order to make our roadways safer as we all travel upon them, enforcing violations for these dangerous actions is an important task that we must undertake”, Sheriff Oberkrom stated.
The “Click It or Ticket” safety belt / child restraint enforcement campaign, which began on May 18th, will continue throughout the end of this month. BUCKLE UP & ARRIVE ALIVE..!!
