May 06--Seven of the 15 intersections where the most traffic crashes occur in Naperville are in the city's Route 59 corridor.
That's a big part of why Naperville police on Monday will be conducting a campaign to look for speeders and other drivers who break traffic safety laws, police said.
"The purpose of the initiative is to increase the safety of citizens utilizing the thoroughfare through education and traffic enforcement," said Sgt. Derek Zook, supervisor of the police department's traffic division. "Our efforts will concentrate on speed, occupant restraint violations and distracted driving, as well as other safety violations noted during our efforts."
Cmdr. Jason Arres said "seven of our top 15 crash intersections were along the (Route) 59 corridor in the second half of 2015." Route 59 is "a major thoroughfare in our town, and the initiative aims "to ensure the safe passage" of travelers, Arres said Thursday.
There will be no roadblocks or checkpoints like those sometimes erected in police anti-drunken-driving campaigns, Arres said. However, police will be on the lookout for inebriated and erratic drivers as well as speeders, those who fail to use their seat belts and those driving poorly maintained, potentially dangerous vehicles, among other violations.
"We will be devoting as many resources as activity allows toward this initiative," Arres said. That could, at some point, include all six members of the department's traffic unit as well as members of the patrol division when they are not conducting other police business, he said.
Naperville police will be joined in the initiative by officers from the Aurora, Hoffman Estates, Shorewood, Streamwood and Warrenville police departments, who will be patrolling the sections of Route 59 that pass through their towns.
