By Wayne Laepple
A 42 percent decline in traffic fatalities in the region during 2009 is the product of strong enforcement efforts and education, highway officials and state police said.
As of Monday, highway deaths in the four-county region stood at 17, compared to 29 last year. At least four of the 17 deaths, or about 25 percent, were directly linked to drunken driving, according to news accounts of the crashes. Locally, two convicted drunken drivers ended up behind bars for causing traffic deaths, and a third person accused of causing an accident while driving in an intoxicated state is awaiting his day in court.
A New Columbia man will spend at least 3 1/2 years in prison for causing the crash that killed Steven A. Walter, 44, of Middleburg, while driving drunk on April 1. Jessica Curry, a 22-year-old Sunbury woman, also was sentenced to jail, but got a reduced sentence after the victim’s mother asked for leniency. Curry was allegedly intoxicated from huffing from an aerosol can when she crashed on Routes 11-15 last January, killing Jason Noll, 20, of Sunbury.
In a third case, James E. Mottern is awaiting trial on charges alleging he was driving drunk in July when he caused the crash that killed motorcyclist Jason M. Blair on Route 35 near Selinsgrove.
In a fourth case, police said a 58-year-year-old Mifflinburg man lost his life Oct. 16 when he crashed while speeding and driving drunk on New Columbia Road in White Deer Township, Union County.
Nationally, about 37 percent of traffic fatalities were alcohol-related in 2008. In Pennsylvania, about 39 percent of traffic fatalities were alcohol-related that year. It was not immediately clear how many local traffic fatalities in 2008 were tied to drunken driving.
Michael Hess, press safety officer for the state Department of Transportation at Montoursville, said the drop from 2008 is an indication that enforcement tools are working.
“We have been targeting impaired driving and aggressive driving,” Hess said. “Our Click It or Ticket safety initiative has also been working well.”
Matt Burrows, a state police trooper at Milton, agreed with Hess.
“It’s good law enforcement,” Burrows said. “Speed and DUI checkpoints are very effective.”
Hess and Burrows agreed that education has played a role in the reduction in fatal accidents.
“Education plays a big part as well,” Hess said. “Troopers visiting schools and talking about driving issues is very effective.”
Burrows said public service announcements on radio and television and newspaper stories about aggressive driving have been helpful.
Hess said the economic situation may have had some bearing on the positive change, but he had no evidence to prove his point. If people can’t afford to drive, that could reduce the number of vehicles on the highways and therefore the number of accidents, he suggested.
