Welcome to Skagit County

March 11th, 2008

NEW ENFORCEMENT PROGRAM TARGETS DRINKING DRIVERS

Skagit County law enforcement agencies will be joining their counterparts in King, Snohomish, Whatcom and Island Counties in a multi-county sustained traffic safety enforcement effort on Saturday, March 15. This is part of the recently announced statewide X-52 project, a carefully orchestrated year-long enforcement program that will bring together a coalition of counties working in a concentrated fashion to take drinking drivers off the road. Drivers who are speeding or driving aggressively will also be targeted in these combined patrols.

Officers from the Anacortes, Burlington, Mount Vernon, Sedro-Woolley and Swinomish Police Departments will join the Skagit County Sheriff’s Office and the Washington State Patrol for this emphasis. These agencies will be working together in a concentrated area in Skagit County that has been identified as having a high percentage of drinking drivers.

Research in the United States and other countries has shown that increasing patrols and publicizing these extra patrols can reduce alcohol involved crashes. In the past, grants from the Washington Traffic Safety Commission have provided for extra enforcement and education efforts in short bursts, usually centered on holidays. This strategy worked well in the early years, but the effectiveness has been diminishing - particularly for impaired driving.

The X-52 sustained enforcement program is one part of Target Zero, Washington’s Strategic Highway Safety Plan with the goal of zero deaths and zero disabling injuries by the year 2030.