Waynesboro PD: Improve traffic safety at busy intersections

The Waynesboro Police Department is working on a project to reduce the incidence of traffic crashes at several major intersections in the city.

Through traffic-safety initiatives, officers will be stepping up vigilance and enforcement at the city’s most hazardous crossroads in an effort to reduce the injuries and property damage occurring as a result of preventable crashes that often can be avoided if basic laws are obeyed.

The department’s operations division will use selective enforcement at each of the targeted intersections in an attempt to curb crashes at that particular location. The PD will plan and then deploy officers in a variety of innovative ways, combining traditional enforcement and new strategies to improve safety for all motorists.

Some of the intersections identified for this effort are: West Main and Lew DeWitt, West Main and Vedette, West Main, Rosser and West Broad, Rosser and Lew DeWitt, and I-64 and Rosser.

There were 100 crashes at the targeted intersections, which constitutes 25 percent of the 397 total motor-vehicle crashes in the city during 2008, which are the last figures available. The leading causes in these crashes are nothing new and run the gamut from excessive speed, inattention and following to close to disregarding red lights and failure to yield making left turns. This trend is continuing in 2009 and will likely increase as commercial growth and traffic volume also increase.