During the month of August, the Culver Police Department (CPD) participated in the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over mobilization.
About 230 Indiana law-enforcement agencies joined thousands nationwide to increase roving patrols, saturation patrols and sobriety checkpoints. Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over is supported with National Highway Traffic Safety Administration funds distributed by the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute (ICJI).
“Highly visible, data-driven traffic enforcement has been proven to deter impaired driving,” said CPD Deputy Chief Chad Becker. “Our commitment to enforcing the law and saving lives continues throughout the year.” Officers issued 23 citations and warnings during the impaired driving patrols.
The month of August also brought school buses back to the roadways as students returned to the start of a new school year.
A new project known as Stop Arm Violation Enforcement (SAVE) was implemented through ICJI, which allowed officers to work extra patrols by following school buses during pick up and drop off routes. While working the SAVE project, officers were not only looking for motorist who may disregard the school bus stop arm, but were also observing for any erratic driving behavior around school bus routes.
CPD partnered with the Culver Community School Corporation to arrange for extra patrols to be focused on routes where bus drivers have reported prior stop arm violations.
During one of the SAVE patrols, a bus was stopped at an intersection yielding to through traffic. A vehicle passed through the intersection at a high rate of speed, at which time the motorist was stopped by the CPD officer and issued a citation for the speed violation.
During the same August enforcement campaign, CPD was notified of a school bus stop arm violation. An officer investigated the violation which resulted in the vehicle and driver being identified, and a report was submitted to the prosecutor’s office for review.
