Local law enforcement officials said fatal crashes were up in 2021 - WJHG-TV

BAY COUNTY, Fla. (WJHG/WECP) - As we reflect on 2021, Florida Highway Patrol and the Bay County Sheriff’s Office said the number of fatal crashes was up from 2020. Now, they want to send a message in hopes to prevent these high numbers in 2022.

When NewsChannel 7 brought you the most recent update in early November, Florida Highway Patrol officials said they had responded to 58 crashes, with 72 lives lost. They expected that number to rise over the holidays to pass 2020 numbers significantly, but that wasn’t the case.

“Arrive Alive,” a motto the Florida Highway Patrol stands by as they work to protect the people of the Panhandle. But all through 2021, they responded to 65 fatal crashes.

“77 lives lost which is very traumatic for our six counties that we serve,” Florida Highway Patrol Troop A Lieutenant Jason King said.

Compare this to all of 2020 where King said they had 62 fatal crashes, with 78 lives lost.

“So we’re up three, which is bad, but we’re thankful it’s not where our projected end result was going to be compared to the first quarter of the year,” said King.

King said they started 2021 off already behind the curve with fatals through the first and second quarter.

“It kind of had our fear factor up. We were ahead 40% or more through the first and second quarter,” said King.

But certain areas stood out more than others when it came to causing these crashes.

“State Road 20, State Road 79, and U.S. 231,” said King.

And at the intersection of State Road 231 and 167, Bay County Sheriff Tommy Ford said they experienced a “concerning” amount of fatalities in the last quarter of 2021.

“It was somewhere in the range of 15 reports,” said Ford.

Both Ford and King said the reason for these numbers being up is because of distracted or wrong-way drivers. This means people speeding, texting and driving, or being distracted by others in the car.

“If you’re in the front, right passenger seat, you’re the co-pilot. You get to plan the trip, you get to plan our destination to stop for eating or fuel. Kind of helps me maintain my focus on the roadway. Utilize other people in the car to help you, plan ahead, do your mapping ahead of time, and give yourself some extra time so you don’t get frustrated and feel like you have to rush,” said King.

And they said getting to your destination safely is not only important for you, but others around you.

“But if you are paying attention, even if somebody is in the wrong lane of travel and driving in your direction if you’re paying attention and you observe that then you may be able to take preventative action,” said Ford.

Take action, so you can arrive alive.

The Florida Highway Patrol and Bay County Sheriff’s Office did a multi-agency enforcement with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Office and Panama City Beach Police Department over New Year’s weekend. Collectively, they issued 150 citations, 120 warnings, worked nearly 50 crashes, with eight DUI arrests.

“It shows where we come together collectively as law enforcement to keep our area, we don’t get joy in taking people to jail, but if we were able to save these eight people from killing themselves or others, that was our end goal is to save them,” said King.

Ford said as for State Road 231 and 167, the sheriff’s office worked with the county and Florida Department of Transportation to increase signage for safety reasons.

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source: https://www.wjhg.com/2022/01/07/local-law-enforcement-officials-said-fatal-crashes-were-up-2021/

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