“It’s kind of disturbing that they’ve been out there for almost a month and they’ve made a hundred DUI arrests,” Colbert said, noting that 34 of the arrests happened from March 21 to 27. “You’d think people could find a different way home or not do it, but we’re not seeing that.”
Colbert said that stretch of road can see from 75 to 100 DUI arrests per month during normal enforcement. “It’s a lot,” he said. “But what’s alarming is we’re not seeing a reduction despite the media attention.”
From March 2 to 27, Colbert said troopers issued 669 citations. Of those, 75 were seat-belt violations and 75 were for crash-causing behavior such as speeding more than 20 miles per hour over the limit, tailing and traffic light issues.
There were 47 arrests for driving under suspension, 29 criminal arrests and 573 warnings. There were more than 1,000 contacts with the public for warnings and citations.
The most serious incident was a fatal crash March 26 when Shawn Curtis Hart, 27, of Dayton, died of multiple blunt force trauma when he was ejected from his vehicle near the east-bound exit to Woodman Drive. A trooper briefly pursued Hart for driving in excess of 80 mph before the trooper called ahead to warn other officers.
The numbers don’t include statistics from March 28 to April 2, the last week of the month-long initiative of stepped-up enforcement.
“The (overall) numbers, especially concentrating in that area, are pretty high,” Colbert said. “As far as the serious traffic violations for non-DUI related, it does look like speeding and that kind of stuff did drop a little bit.”
Colbert said the initiative was in part due to two troopers’ vehicles being hit on the road in Greene County by intoxicated drivers. One of those troopers, he said, still has not returned to work due to the injuries he sustained.
Contact this reporter at (937) 225-6951 or mgokavi@DaytonDailyNews.com.
About the Author