JACKSON – The Mississippi Department of Public Safety (MDPS) said the preliminary statistics for 2009 showed an across the board reduction in traffic fatalities, alcohol-related traffic deaths and total traffic injuries compared to the numbers in 2008 for the state of Mississippi.
Public Affairs Director John Kalahar, of the MDPS, said this proves “that the extra hours put in by the men and women of the Mississippi Highway Patrol and at the Mississippi Department of Public Safety are paying off,” he said. “But that doesn’t mean the job is finished.”
As a result, Kalahar said Mississippi will soon see three new vehicles on the state’s roads and highways with the purpose of fighting impaired driving.
“We cannot prevent every death on our roadways in Mississippi, but alcohol-related deaths are preventable,” said MDPS Commissioner Stephen B. Simpson. “We will continue to make every effort to wipe out impaired driving in our state.”
The breath alcohol testing (BAT) vehicles will be placed in each region of the state (northern, central, and southern) and will be utilized by all nine enforcement districts of the Mississippi Highway Patrol.
“Instead of transporting suspected drunk drivers to a local jail for a definitive breath test, we’ll take them to a BAT vehicle stationed nearby,” said Lieutenant Colonel Donnell Berry of the Mississippi Highway Patrol. “This means less time for a driver to sober up and potentially more convictions.”
The BAT vehicles were purchased with 100 percent of federal dollars from the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration, for use in the Highway Patrol’s sustained DUI enforcement efforts. And drivers can expect to see the new vehicles in use often across the state as part of special details to increase DUI sobriety checkpoints and more troopers will be placed in areas of the state with a high number of alcohol-related crashes.
Recent statistics by StateMaster.com said that Mississippi ranks number one in the nation for alcohol-related traffic deaths.
According to MDPS statistics, in 2005, almost 1,000 people were killed on Mississippi roadways. In 2009, that figure dropped 25 percent with preliminary numbers showing that 699 people were killed. State officials are hopeful that once the new BAT vehicles in place, those numbers will continue to decrease.
“A 25 percent reduction in that amount of time is nothing short of incredible,” said Kim Proctor, Director of the Mississippi Office of Highway Safety. “This decrease in fatalities shows commitment by the Mississippi Highway Patrol and local law enforcement agencies in keeping our roads safe from impaired drivers as well as the partnership it takes between state and federal agencies to accomplish that goal.”
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