The Bartholomew County Sheriff Department and Columbus Police Department will receive a combined total of $20,000 in an Indiana Criminal Justice Institute grant to help fund overtime patrols to prevent reckless or intoxicated driving.
The grant is part of $6.5 million in traffic safety grants awarded to more than 200 police departments in Indiana’s 92 counties.
The law enforcement agencies will use this money to conduct “zero tolerance” overtime patrols and sobriety checkpoints. The first law enforcement blitz will begin around the Thanksgiving weekend. The Safe Family Travel campaign is designed to cut down on impaired driving and promote seat belt use during the holiday season, according to the institute.
But this first dedicated enforcement campaign comes with a twist. For the first time, police will utilize two different units as a team. One will be a police “spotter” watching for violations who can radio to a partner if speeding is detected.
In Indiana, traffic fatalities continue to exceed pre-pandemic levels. As of early October, a total of 683 people have been killed in crashes in the Hoosier state, preliminary data shows.
Although this is around the same rate as in 2020, it represents a significant 8% increase from 2019.
The Columbus area has had more than its shares of fatalities in 2021. Capt. Dave Steinkoenig, road division commander at the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, says the number of people killed locally is higher than average at this point in the year.
One of the most tragic crashes claimed the life of Parkside Elementary student Kayydence Mings, on Jan. 18. The 10-year-old died when the westbound vehicle she was riding in crashed into a tree on East 25th Street near the former Petersville landfill.
That same day, Musa Rahmani, 53, of Edinburgh, lost his life when his vehicle he was struck by a semi tractor-trailer on Columbus’ northwest side.
On May 30th, a collision in southern Bartholomew County killed a 30-year-old motorcyclist, Two days later, a 30-year-old Indianapolis man was killed near the Interstate 65-State Road 46 interchange in Columbus.
There was much publicity about 16-year-old Columbus East High School student Lily J. Streeval being killed in late August while attempting to reach her school bus. But that was also the same month when a Hope couple, Richard and Wanda Ott,were killed in a head-on collision on East 25th Street near the Columbus city limits.
Less than two weeks after Streeval’s death, two local men were killed in separate crashes, while another head-on collision in October claimed the lives of two young women from Columbus: 26-year-old Chelsea Jo Boston and 21-year-old Tapanga Eudy.
If the pace continues and with the holiday travel season ahead, Indiana could surpass 900 traffic fatalities by the end of the year – one of the highest in the past decade, according to the institute.
Steinkoenig said most fatal accidents occur for four reasons: higher than average speeds, a decline in seat belt use, an increase in motorists driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol and driver inattention.
“That’s why we tend to call them crashes and not accidents,” Steinkoenig said. “An accident is basically nobody’s fault, but there are usually two or three faults involved in crashes.”
Besides the ICJI grant, local law enforcement have also received federal money for patrolling traffic around school buses, as well as grants from the Bartholomew County Substance Abuse Council for traffic enforcement, Steinkoenig said.
Surrounding counties are also receiving a wide range of grants through the ICJI. The largest in our region – $82,000 – will go to Johnson County. Meanwhile, Jackson County will received $62,000, Shelby County will get $38,500 and Brown County is set to receive $20,900.
The smallest grants will go to Decatur County’s law enforcement agencies($5,000) and Jennings County ($4,000).
