Four deadly accidents in four days; Elkhart Co. deputies come up with plan
“This month alone we've had five traffic fatalities,” said Captain Mike Culp, Elkhart Co. Sheriff’s Dept.
May just became one of the deadliest months for fatal crashes in Elkhart County.
“Compared to last year we only had 5 in the same time frame,” said Culp.
According to the Indiana traffic safety facts annual report, from 2009 to 2015, no other may has seen this many deaths due to traffic collisions.
Captain Mike Culp with the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department says the cause of those accidents varies.
“A lot of the things that we have are distracted driving or aggressive or dangerous driving,” said Culp.
Having recorded this information, Culp says they have a plan in place. His department along with seven others in the county who are part of the Traffic Safety Partnership are using the details from these crash reports to crack down.
“There’s a crash reporting system that we utilize,” said Culp.
Specifically on problem areas throughout the county like U.S. 6 and County Road 17. Culp says these areas tend to result in more serious crashes given traffic density and higher speeds.
“It takes all that data that we input from the crashes we work. We can look at certain times of day when we have our crashes, what the causation was for those crashes, and then what we can do to try to get out there and basically enforce or look for those kind of violations that are occurring,” said Culp.
Their approach, getting everyone from A to B, safely.
“Really what we are trying to do is get people’s awareness up about wearing a seatbelt even on the short trips, getting a sober driver, taking the time to get to work when the weather is good or it's bad,” said Culp.
Captain Culp says they’ve already figured out the times drivers are most prevalent at specific intersections or in certain areas and they’ve just begun placing officers in those areas to patrol.