VSP campaign nets 3,536 speeders

By DAN KEGLEY/Staff

Virginia State Police reported Monday that “thousands of speeders and hundreds of reckless drivers and seat-belt violators were cited” over the weekend in Operation Air, Land & Speed traffic-safety enforcement effort on Interstates 81 and 95.
No fatal traffic crashes were reported on either interstate, VSP said.
VSP officers stopped a total of 3,536 speeders, 717 reckless drivers and 20 drunk drivers between March 6 and 7 on both interstates combined. They cited 310 safety belt violations and made 35 drug and felony arrests.  The operation yielded 7,016 total summonses and arrests.
VSP public relations manager Corinne Geller said Monday that in the Wytheville Division that includes Giles, Pulaski, Carroll and counties west, troopers issued summonses in 560 instances of speeding, 112 cases of reckless driving, three DUI violations, and 29 adult and child seatbelt violations. She said they made seven drug or felony arrests and cited 91 vehicle equipment violations.
“Within the 105-mile stretch of I-81 in the Wytheville Division from Tennessee to the Pulaski/Montgomery line, VSP troopers worked only two crashes,” Geller said.
Troopers in the division also assisted 67 motorists, Geller said.
The number of violations found disappointed Virginia State Police Superintendent Colonel W. Steven Flaherty. In a prepared statement released Monday, Flaherty said, “It is discouraging to see so many motorists on our interstates putting themselves and others at risk by failing to comply with speed limits, to buckle up, and to drive sober. The safety of Virginia’s highways begins the minute a vehicle is put in ‘drive.’ Those split second decisions to choose not to drive drunk, to choose to wear a seat belt and to choose not to speed or drive aggressively really do make a difference in preventing and/or surviving a crash.”
VSP said this weekend’s Operation Air, Land & Speed was the 13th conducted on the north-south corridors of I-81 and I-95 since its inception in 2006. A total of 120,977 summonses and arrests have resulted from 23 Operation Air, Land & Speed initiatives across Virginia since 2006.
VSP said money generated from summonses issued by state police go directly to court fees and the state’s Literary Fund that benefits public school construction, technology funding and teacher retirement.