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Seattle police to conduct road safety emphasis patrols on Aurora

Seattle police to conduct road safety emphasis patrols on Aurora Consider yourself on alert! The Seattle Police Department (SPD) will have a larger presence on the Aurora Corridor this Thursday and Friday, November 8 and 9.  SPD will be conducting emphasis patrols to improve traffic safety for everyone using Seattle’s roads as part of the Be Super Safe Seattle effort.

SPD will patrol the entire length of Aurora from the Battery Street Tunnel to the city limits at North 145th Street. The patrols will focus on the behaviors that commonly contribute to collisions, injuries and deaths along Aurora Avenue North such as speeding, impaired driving (DUI), cell phone usage/distraction, and failure to yield.

Aurora is a busy thoroughfare within a thriving community. The goal of the emphasis patrol is to promote safe behavior, not necessarily to write tickets. A big part of achieving this goal is getting the safety reminder out to the public in advance of the emphasis patrol. In doing so we work together to create a safer environment.

We want to reduce collisions and make safer roadways for all users – drivers, pedestrians, and cyclists.  Enforcing traffic safety laws in areas with high numbers of crashes is part of this effort’s multifaceted approach to improve safety. Targeted educational outreach efforts and significant infrastructure investments are also planned for Aurora over the next three years. With your help we know that we can build on the success of the Aurora Traffic Safety Project and improve safety even further on this critical corridor.

In Seattle:

  •  33 percent of collisions involve speeding. If a person is hit by a car traveling 40 mph, they have an 85 percent chance of being killed. If that car traveled just 10 mph slower, the person has a 55 percent chance of surviving.
  • Despite new laws that make texting or talking on the phone illegal, there are more than 1,000 distraction-involved collisions each year.
  • Almost half of all fatal collisions involve impairment.

All of these collisions are preventable!  Help us get the word out and visit www.seattle.gov/BeSuperSafe for more information. Remember, no matter how you go, BE SUPER SAFE!