(PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 With traffic expected to surge this Memorial Day weekend, additional Maryland state troopers will be on patrol and using a variety of initiatives to keep traffic moving, respond quickly to highway incidents and take appropriate enforcement action when violations are observed that threaten the safety of travelers.<\/p>\n
Beginning Friday, troopers from each of the 23 Maryland State Police barracks statewide will be focusing enforcement efforts on impaired driving, aggressive driving, speeding, distracted driving and other violations that often contribute to highway tragedies. Additional troopers will be working overtime assignments funded by highway safety grants from the Maryland Department of Transportation\u2019s Motor Vehicle Administration\u2019s Highway Safety Office.<\/p>\n
This also represents the start of the department\u2019s summer enforcement efforts, which will remain intense throughout the summer. This initiative highlights how focused the Maryland State Police have been in 2021 targeting impaired drivers. So far this year, troopers have arrested approximately 2,700 impaired drivers.\u00a0 That is 700 more than at this time last year.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n
In addition to working enforcement in cooperation with local police departments, troopers will be working closely with personnel from the Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration.\u00a0 MDOT SHA provides significant help arranging detours at crash sites and conducting courtesy patrols to assist motorists.<\/p>\n
According to AAA, an estimated 806,000 Marylanders are planning a getaway for Memorial Day weekend. This represents a 63 percent increase from a year ago when much of the country and world was under travel restrictions due to the COVID-19 pandemic. Of those planning to travel in Maryland, 746,900 are forecast to travel by vehicle this holiday weekend, a 53 percent increase from a year ago.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe will have extra state troopers patrolling Maryland highways from the mountains to the beaches this holiday weekend and at peak times throughout the summer,\u201d Maryland State Police Lt. Colonel Roland Butler, Chief of the Field Operations Bureau. \u201cOur troopers will also be assisting disabled motorists and working hard to manage and clear traffic incidents as quickly as possible to keep traffic flowing.<\/p>\n
“And as always, our world-renowned Aviation Command pilots and flight paramedics will be ready to respond to care for anyone who is injured and needs trauma care.\u00a0 Our helicopter crews will also be monitoring the traffic flow and notifying troopers on patrol of situations that need their attention. \u00a0The Maryland State Police and our other state law enforcement agencies are ready for this weekend and the upcoming summer season.\u00a0 We want everyone traveling in Maryland to have a safe summer.\u201d<\/p>\n
With so many motorists expected to be on the road, drivers can check travel conditions and delays before traveling. The Maryland Department of Transportation State Highway Administration provides up-to-date traffic and road conditions at roads.maryland.gov, or chart.state.md.us.\u00a0 Traffic conditions are also available at md511.org, or by safely dialing 511 on your cell phone.<\/p>\n
Every year more than 160 lives are lost and thousands more are injured in Maryland in crashes involving impaired drivers, according to the Maryland Department of Transportation. Please don\u2019t drink and drive this weekend.<\/p>\n
If you are\u00a0attending\u00a0a Memorial Day gathering:<\/p>\n
If you are\u00a0hosting\u00a0a Memorial Day gathering:<\/p>\n
###<\/p>\n
CONTACT: Office of Media Communication, msp.media@maryland.gov<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
(PIKESVILLE, MD) \u2013 With traffic expected to surge this Memorial Day weekend, additional Maryland state troopers will be on patrol and using a variety of initiatives to keep traffic moving, respond quickly to highway incidents and take appropriate enforcement action when violations are observed that threaten the safety of travelers. Beginning Friday, troopers from each Read the Rest…<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":162,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_s2mail":"yes","footnotes":""},"categories":[28,1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-22193","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-press-releases","category-uncategorized"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22193","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/162"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=22193"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22193\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":22199,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/22193\/revisions\/22199"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=22193"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=22193"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news.maryland.gov\/msp\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=22193"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}