Blue-Light Special Stepped-Up Patrols Focus On North Division Speeders

Speeders beware. Red light-runners, pay attention.

Armed with radar and laser guns Friday, local law enforcement agencies teamed up for what they called an “emphasis patrol,” ticketing speeding drivers and red-light racers along North Division and Ruby.

And that probably won’t be the last time.

Eight Spokane police officers, seven Washington State Patrol troopers and two sheriff’s deputies patrolled a 10-mile section of the North Division corridor from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m. as part of a yearlong effort to control speed and reduce accidents. The area is now identified with royal blue and metallic orange signs as the “D-Zone.”

The corridor, which stretches from Interstate 90 north to the Newport Highway, had five fatalities during a three-year study conducted by the Washington State Traffic Commission from 1991 to 1993, the highest among comparable roads in the state during that time, said city traffic unit supervisor Sgt. Anthony Giannetto. In all, 1,981 collisions were reported along the corridor, including 62 where somebody required treatment at the hospital.

“The higher the speed, the more likely it is there will be an injury,” said city traffic officer John Clarke. “Hopefully through an education process, we will be able to reduce these.”

That education process is the corridor project, which officially began Monday when an extra member of the Spokane Police Department’s traffic unit was assigned to patrol North Division from 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., Monday through Friday. Giannetto said the study showed those times to be peak traffic hours.

The department received a one-year, $57,000 state grant for the project, slated to run through June 30, 1996.

“The reason the state came up with the money was because (the fatality rate) was the highest in the state,” Giannetto said.

Traffic officers will be rotating through the Division Street duty every two weeks. Clarke drew the first rotation, along with his partner, Mike Reynolds.

“We get every excuse in the book,” Clarke said as he scanned traffic from a lot on the corner of Ruby and North Foothills Drive. “The biggest one is, ‘We didn’t know it was 30 mile per hour.’ But it’s posted along here both ways.”

Friday’s cooperative patrol was an exercise the three departments hope to do periodically.

“Just the visibility of us out here makes them think about it,” Clarke said. “Plus they see us out here making stops.”

Lights flashed frequently on Friday morning as officers on motorcycles and deputies and troopers in cruisers pulled over a handful of motorists during an hour stretch just before lunch. By day’s end, the police department had written 61 citations, including 25 for speeding and 14 for running red lights. State and county statistics were not available.

“One of the biggest problems is people aren’t paying attention to their speed,” Clarke said. “And their attention is not on their driving.”

An increase in traffic volume and motorists’ inability to adapt have caused an increase in rear-end and right-angle accidents, Clarke said.

“People don’t allow themselves enough time to get from point A to point B,” he said. “If they don’t see any enforcement, everybody has a tendency to go above the speed limit at least a little.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: Color photo

MEMO: This sidebar appeared with the story: THE ‘D-ZONE’ The corridor which stretches from I-90 north to the Newport Highway: Five fatalities were reported in a three-year study by the Washington State Traffic Commission from 1991 to 1993. In all, 1,981 collisions were reported along the corridor. Of those, 62 collisions required treatment at the hospital.