On February 21st and 22nd troopers from the Pendleton and Indianapolis Posts joined with the Wayne County Sheriff’s Department, Ohio Highway Patrol, Preble County Sheriff’s Department and other Ohio Police Agencies in a joint saturation patrol along interstate 70 to reduce traffic fatalities and curtail criminal activity. 

Indiana troopers concentrated their efforts on I-70 from Indianapolis east looking for crash causing violations like following too closely, unsafe lane movement, and excessive speed, as well as operating while intoxicated and any criminal activity. Troopers from the Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division were on I-70 doing inspections while Motor Carrier Inspectors at the scale house on I-70 weighed a total of 7,958 trucks.  Below is a compilation of enforcement efforts during the two-day project.

• Traffic Arrests - 765
• Warnings Issued - 945
• Criminal Arrests - 28
• Operating While Intoxicated Arrests – 11
• Trucks over 10,000 l.b.
• Tickets – 86
• Trucks over 10,000 l.b. Inspected – 115 with 144 D.O.T. violations found
• Trucks over 10,000 l.b. out of service – 4 vehicles, 7 drivers

The Indiana State Police remain committed to reducing crashes and patrolling in high crash areas.  We will continue to monitor the top causes for crashes and concentrating enforcement efforts on these causes.  Lt. Bob Burke, Commander of the Pendleton Post said,   “What was substantial about this effort was our ability to work with our neighboring state law enforcement officers and attempt to make our highways safer.  We attempted to reduce fatal injury crashes, remove intoxicated drivers and find the criminal element along a major thoroughfare….and we did that collectively! "

Burke went on to say, “Within both states we did not have a single injury or fatal crash on Interstate 70 during this 48-hour period.  Due to the extra presence of law enforcement, you could certainly see the change in driving behavior where people slowed down. Following distances were safe and overall moving violations were becoming less apparent as the enforcement effort continued.  This was a great joint effort from both states and something we are going to do again in the near future.  I truly believe that lives were saved during this saturation patrol effort.”