Traffic violators cited by Warren officers

By Ed Runyan

There were no drunken- driving citations out of about 150 citations issued.

WARREN — It was a busy weekend for traffic law enforcement here.

In addition to the normal 20 or so speeding tickets, red-light and stop-sign violations that are handed out on an ordinary weekend, Warren police also wrote 130 citations under a state-funded target enforcement program last weekend.

Officers wrote 150 traffic citations from Friday morning to Sunday night.

The highest number of citations were for driving too fast, but a large number were for seat belt violations, driving on a suspended driver’s license or having no front license plate. A few were for having a loud muffler or cracked windshield.

Some examples of citations given by officers working regular patrols include: a citation for a Niles man driving 39 mph in a 25 mph zone on South Street Southeast, an Indianapolis man driving 41 mph in a 25 mph. zone at South Street and Pine Avenue Southeast, and a Warren woman driving 44 mph in a 25 mph zone at South Street and West Market Street.

All three citations were written around midnight Friday.

Officers wrote red-light citations for Warren residents at 2:15 a.m. and 2:30 a.m. Sunday in the downtown area.

None of the citations from the weekend were for driving drunk.

Larry Salvato, traffic commissioner, said 13 police officers worked four-hour overtime shifts from Friday morning to Sunday evening at specific locations throughout the city to catch violators.

Eight officers will be back out this weekend, he said.

Salvato said the city qualified for the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s program “Drunk Driving: Over the limit, under arrest” based on its statistics for traffic crashes. “Our numbers are high,” he said.

In writing the grant proposal, the city uses statistics to show the locations where the highest accident numbers occur, and the manpower is placed in those locations, Salvato said, noting that officers assigned to such a patrol are not allowed to shift over to regular road patrol while assigned to the program.

“The whole goal is to reduce accidents,” Salvato said.

The “Over the limit, under arrest” program puts extra police officers on traffic duty about 10 times a year — mostly on weekends when there is likely to be a high amount of traffic in town, such as Labor Day weekend or during festivals, Salvato said.

The current grant runs through the end of September. If the city is approved for another year, the funding will begin in October, Salvato said.

runyan@vindy.com