Dare To 55 traffic safety event nets 10 arrests, 75 citations
A traffic safety event on Tuesday targeting aggressive driving and driving while impaired in Dare County netted ten arrests and 75 total citations on a variety of charges.
Local, state and federal law enforcement agencies participated in the Dare To 55 event that ran over an eight hour period.
Officers conducted saturation patrols, also known as ‘wolf packs’, along U.S. 158 from Kitty Hawk to Nags Head, N.C. 12 between Whalebone Junction and Oregon Inlet, and U.S. 64 from Nags Head to the Alligator River Bridge between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m.
That was followed by a checkpoint on the U.S. 64 causeway at Pirates Cove in Manteo from 9 to 11 p.m., which included one of the state’s Breath Alcohol Testing (BAT) Mobile Units.
Known as the BAT Mobile, there are seven units spread across the state as a joint effort of the North Carolina Division of Public Health’s Forensic Tests for Alcohol Branch and the Governor’s Highway Safety Program.
Dare County Sheriff’s Office Sgt. M.A. “Andy” Harris coordinated the Dare To 55 event, which he said was a play on words based on the ’10-code’ for impaired driving being ’10-55′, and the fastest speed limit in Dare County is 55 mph.
Harris said one arrest for driving while impaired was made during the operation, along with two people for concealed weapons, five drug-related arrests, and two subjects with outstanding warrants were also taken into custody.
“There were 25 speeding violations, ten for no operators license, six seat belt violations, three for driving with a revoked license, and the rest were miscellaneous motor vehicle violations,” Harris said.
The Dare To 55 event was part of a series of Booze It and Lose It efforts in Dare County that have received backing from the North Carolina Governor’s Highway Safety Program.
The program also assists with funding to cover overtime for the Dare County Sheriff’s Office to conduct high visibility enforcement focused on seatbelt and speeding enforcement, and pedestrian and bicycle safety, during the vacation season.
North Carolina Division of Motor Vehicles data between 2017 and 2021 shows there is an average of one vehicle-related collisions every 7 hours and 42 minutes in Dare County.
There were an average of 863 collisions, 400 injuries and four deaths, and an average of 55 alcohol-related crashes, with an average of 34 injuries and 1 death over the same five year period.
Dare ranked 49th in pedestrian fatalities in North Carolina, 38th in pedestrian crashes with serious injuries, and 11th in crashes involving bicycles between 2017-21, which were the most recent years available from NCDMV.
Harris added that a pair of Manteo High School students taking part in the Dare County Sheriff Doug Doughtie’s Summer Camp S.A.L.T. were invited to see pre-staging for the Dare To 55 event as members of the Teen Court.
“They were given a tour of the BAT Mobile, and shown how an impaired driver is processed, as well as a demonstration of a standard field sobriety test,” Harris said.
Looking at those results and who they caught this should be run weekly. Any day is as good as the next during the Summer. No license and revoked licenses costs us all money in an accident. Great job.