And in the near future if you’re driving through Russellville, you may want to pay extra attention.
Because of a rash of recent accidents in the city’s intersections, the Russellville Police Department will be having “directed patrols,” with the purpose of enforcing traffic safety in and around the town’s intersections.
“Just in the last month or so, intersection accidents have really picked up,” said RPD chief Barry Dill said. “I don’t know if it’s the weather breaking and people are just excited about spring coming or what – we’re just seeing a lot more people running red lights and not stopping at stop signs. Sometimes its people from out of town that might not know – but other times it isn’t.”
Because of these accidents, Dill has decided to have directed patrols to help drivers be more aware when passing through intersections.
“We do directed patrols fairly often,” Dill said. “A lot of times it has to be with traffic enforcement – with things like speeding.
“Often they do help solve the problem. Especially when the officer is out there and visible. If they don’t see them for while though, often goes back to the way it was before and we just redo the patrol.”
So if you see an RPD patrol car sitting near one of Russellville’s intersections – you know what they are doing.
“We plan on having them sitting at intersections and enforcing the stop lights and signs,” Dill said. “We want to make sure people are not just driving straight through.”
If you are caught disobeying the law while passing through, expect to get pulled over.
That may or may not result in a ticker, however.
“It’s up to the officer’s discretion,” Dill said. “Whether they hand out a ticket or warning depends on the situation for the officer. I haven’t put out a command to go out and write tickets. I just want to make a presence known and get folks in the habit of paying attention at these intersections.”
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