Grant funds to help reduce accidents

By Elise Franco | October 10, 2011 at 12:07a.m.

Canfield

Police agencies will use more than $150,000 in grant money to help reduce alcohol-related accidents and fatalities in Mahoning County.

Canfield Police Chief Chuck Colucci said the county received a federal grant for $152,936 through the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Office of Criminal Justice Services. The grant, previously given to only 10 counties, was awarded for fiscal year 2012 to the 14 Ohio counties with the highest rate of alcohol-related accidents.

Mahoning County received the grant each year from 2004 to 2010, Colucci said, but fell short of the top 10 in 2011.

Colucci said 14 police agencies — Austintown, Beaver, Boardman, Canfield, Goshen, Jackson, Mahoning County Sheriff’s Department, Mill Creek MetroParks, Milton, New Middletown, Springfield, Struthers, Youngstown and Youngstown State University — will participate in the yearlong enforcement effort.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol also is involved but funded separately, he said.

“The intent is to prevent impaired drivers from getting behind the wheel and causing accidents,” Colucci said. “Those goals are accomplished through visibility, education and enforcement.”

Canfield Assistant Chief Scott Weamer said officers from the agencies involved will work as a task force to run 12 Operating a Vehicle Impaired checkpoints throughout the county and seven saturation patrols, or “blitzes.” Officers also will work extra patrol hours within their respective jurisdictions.

“The grant pays mostly for overtime payroll and for refresher-training courses,” he said.

Colucci said although the checkpoints and blitz patrols will be spread throughout the county, Boardman, Austintown and Youngstown will be major focuses.

“Obviously those communities, which have higher accident rates, will get more emphasis,” he said.

Sgt. John Allsopp of the Boardman police said Boardman recorded only one traffic fatality each year from 2007 to 2010.

He said without federal funding this year, the department was unable to have extra patrols or checkpoints on its own. Allsopp said so far, five people have died this year in traffic accidents with a sixth pending. At least half were alcohol-related, he said.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that fatalities spiked this year,” he said. “I’m absolutely convinced we’re out there saving lives, reducing injuries with this grant.”

Allsopp calls the program a win-win for every community involved.

“It’s an opportunity to enhance traffic safety, but it’s also an added layer of protection to the communities we’re working in,” he said. “When these officers are working task-force operations [they] have the ability to leave the task-force operations and respond to more serious calls.”

Colucci said it’s clear that impaired driving is a problem in the county, making the checkpoints a necessary tool to keep motorists safe.

“When we’re out, we end up with way more arrests at those points,” he said. “The rate of these OVI arrests tells us we have a problem.”