Beginning Monday, Nov. 25 and continuing through Sunday, Dec. 1, the Geary County Sheriff's Department will join other police agencies across the state, including the Kansas Highway Patrol, in the Kansas Thanksgiving Safe Arrival traffic enforcement campaign.
A grant from KDOT will underwrite overtime enforcement efforts that specifically aim at removing impaired drivers from roads and ticketing vehicle occupants who are unrestrained or whose child passengers are unrestrained.
According to KDOT the day before Thanksgiving sees more impairment related crashes than any other day of the year. On average, across Kansas, three people are injured every day, and one person is killed every four days in alcohol / drug related crashes. Vehicle occupants in alcohol or other drug related crashes are more than two-and-a-half times more likely to be injured or killed than those involved in crashes where alcohol or other drugs were not a factor.
Also responsible for needless death and maiming is the failure by many teens and adults to simply buckle up themselves or to properly buckle up child passengers. Twice as many Kansans who die from a crash are unrestrained as are restrained.