Sheriff’s Office safety checkpoints proving to be successful

BOWLING GREEN, Ky. – In early July, the Warren County Sheriff’s Office announced that it would begin conducting monthly traffic safety checkpoints.

Two months in, those checkpoints are leading to safer roads for drivers.

In their most recent traffic checkpoint stop on Aug. 30, Warren County Sheriff Brett Hightower said that they made contact with 600 drivers, which resulted in 28 citations and two arrests made after the seizure of drugs and a handgun.

“This is a great way for us to make people aware that you need to be wearing safety belts,” he said. “You need to have your proof of insurance readily available. It’s just kind of make people aware.”

These checkpoints, Hightower added, are being conducted with the safety of the community in mind.

“I think these are advantageous for the community to see that we care about what is happening and that we care about traffic and fatalities and injury accidents,” said Hightower. “We’re trying to take a step forward in the hopes that this would help reduce this over time.”

Officials want to reduce the amount of fatal accidents in Warren County where they most frequently occur, which is how the locations of these checkpoints were selected.

“The idea is that those areas where we’ve seen and had more impaired driving, then we have been out in those specific locations and spending more time out there,” said Hightower.

The most recent checkpoint was conducted on Highway 185 between Mount Olivet Road and Richardsville Road.

Despite the need to stop, traffic delays have been brief or non-existent, according to Hightower.

“There’s gonna be probably a five to eight minute wait, but we would hope the community would be respectful of that and mindful that the end goal is a safer roadway,” he said.

Drivers who have gone through the checkpoints have told officers that they’re thankful for their proactive efforts to avoid further fatal accidents from occurring.

“99% of the people that came through Friday night were just very appreciative of what we were doing and what our end goal and intentions were for having these,” Hightower said.

The sheriff’s office intends to hold a checkpoint every month until November.

They plan to resume the stops when the weather improves, likely some time in April.