Keeping Drivers Safe During the Holiday Season

Greenwich Police are in a giving mood as the holiday season officially begins this weekend. And the effort is keep drivers safe.

Thanks to a state Department of Transportation grant, the department's traffic division is spearheading a 'click it or ticket it' effort along with special enforcement program looking for drunk drivers, according the division's commander, Sgt. John Slusarz.

"We have saturation patrols now through the end of the year. We will have extra officers who are enforcing safety regulations and finding drunk drivers," Slusarz said. Since the department has hired at least two extra officers to patrol the town roads on Nov. 17, there have been five drunk driving arrests and "quite a lot of citations," Slusarz said.

According to Slusarz, the $75,000 grant "is for enforcement for all of the holiday seasons in November, December, and on Super Bowl Sunday and St. Patrick's Day — and the holidays in May, July August and September. It's awesome we will have at least two additional units every night."

He added, "It's important — we want people to be safe for the holidays. If you are driving under the influence, you can crash your car, possibly hitting someone, injuring them or yourself."

The patrols will be roving Greenwich every Thursday, Friday and Saturday night through mid-December, then during the last two weeks of December, they will be on duty every night, Slusarz said. "We are targeting those areas with a high frequency of driving while intoxicated arrests."

Officers also have issued dozens of tickets to drivers not wearing seatbelts during the November 'click it or ticket' campaign. Specifically, officers have been targeting drivers in the Glenville area of town. The offense carries a $92 fine.