School back in session means more traffic and more enforcement

NEW MADRID, Mo. - For the police department, the summer is usually a slower time of year and things begin to pick up when school is back in session. This may seem strange, but with the beginning of school comes more traffic on the roads, which in turn leads to more traffic accidents and more traffic enforcement.

For the first few weeks of school, officers will be monitoring areas that receive a lot of school traffic, specifically Highway 61, Scott Street and Dawson Road. In addition, officers will be following bus routes to watch for stop arm violations at bus stops.

Recently we have worked several traffic crashes where there has been a discrepancy between the statements of the drivers. For example, driver No. 1 may say that they were backing up and the other car pulled in their path. At the same time, driver No. 2 may say they were sitting still when driver No. 1 backed into them.

Traffic crashes are non-criminal matters where police simply act as information gatherers for the drivers and their respective insurance companies. The police do not determine fault; if there is a discrepancy in the statements, the officer can only write down what each driver says and let their insurance companies negotiate the rest.

In addition, because accident reports are a non-criminal function, officers usually will not pull surveillance video from cameras in the area that may have caught the incident. The exception to this is when it appears one or both drivers may appear to be covering up a criminal act or attempting to commit insurance fraud.

In most crashes, all of the follow-up and paperwork should be done in three to five business days and at that point, the report will be ready to be released to both drivers.