LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) -- Louisville Metro Police Lt. Arnold Rivera said officers under his command in the department’s traffic unit have encountered a surprising answer from some drivers this year who were pulled over for traveling more than 100 miles per hour.
“They didn’t think we could stop people because of the pandemic,” he said. “That type of dangerous driving has to be addressed.”
But slowing people down this year has been difficult for a variety of reasons: the pandemic that initially prompted officers to interact less with drivers and a traffic unit that has been slashed by more than half from recent years.
The result is what is expected to be the deadliest year ever for fatal wrecks in Louisville.
So far this year, 62 people have died on Louisville roadways compared to 49 at the same time last year, about a 27% increase. That number was 35 in 2018.
And serious life-threatening injury accidents have climbed from 27 last year at this time to 39 so far in 2020, an increase of more than 30%.
“We are on an extraordinary pace this year,” Rivera said. “It is concerning not only for the public but concerning for my officers investigating these collisions.”
This may seem counter intuitive as police say there are fewer drivers on the road during the pandemic. But many states across the country are recording more fatalities during the coronavirus crisis than in the same periods of past years.
The National Safety Council said data in May showed that while Americans are driving less, the emptier roads “became more lethal,” with a 23.5% jump nationwide in fatality rates per mile driven compared with the same time period last year. The numbers have climbed ever month since March, according to the safety council.
At the same time, according to the council, average speeds increased significantly.
According to data from the Kentucky Office of Highway Safety, there have been 415 deaths from wrecks so far in 2020 across Kentucky. During all of 2019, there were 734.
“With less traffic, I guess the temptation from having open roadways, people have increased their travel speed,” Rivera said.
And Rivera said that while the workload has increased for the traffic unit, staffing has not.
From 2015 to 2019, the traffic unit has averaged about 23 officers. This year, the staffing is currently 10 officers.
Part of this is a shifting in resources as police have dealt with daily protests in recent months over the police shooting deaths of Breonna Taylor, David McAatee, among other Black people across the country killed by police.
For example, Rivera said many of his officers spent every day downtown for about 22 days in a row monitoring protests.
“We have what we have and do the best we can with the resources we have here,” he said.
Another issue facing staffing for the traffic unit is a reorganization of the entire department that moved resources.
"Numbers in our traffic unit decreased due to the constriction/reorganization we undertook in December due to the decrease in number of officers we had," LMPD spokesperson Jessie Halladay said. "As you may remember, we reduced our recruit classes last year due to budget reductions."
Traffic tickets in Louisville have plummeted this year, falling from 25,480 at this time in 2019 to 11,932 so far this year, a drop of more than 50%. And the number of tickets written in 2018 nearly hit 30,000, according to statistics provided by police.
In March, the department announced it would try and limit interaction between the public and officers to try and prevent spreading the coronavirus.
Rivera said, however, that “as everything else has relaxed, we have relaxed our restrictions.” And more speeding tickets is one of the strategies police official have discussed in hopes of reducing traffic accidents.
“I know the general public doesn’t appreciate getting speeding tickets,” he said. “But there is a reason we target specific roadways.”
He also urged drivers to wear their seat belts, noting 74% of the people involved in fatal wrecks this year were not wearing their seat belts or other safety device, such as a helmet.
“The public needs to be mindful when it travels on the roadways,” he said. “Lives are being impacted every day from these fatal collisions.”
Reporter Travis Ragsdale contributed to this story.
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