Police stepped up patrols for “Staying Alive on I-95”

Published June 23rd, 2008

FROM STAFF REPORTS

Drivers on Interstate 95 had plenty of company from police this past Thursday, Friday and Saturday due to the efforts of the Dori Slosberg Foundation's Annual "Staying Alive on 95" program.

"The number of citations written during these saturations is an indication that drivers are not taking the law seriously,” said Tara Kirschner, executive director of the Dori Slosberg Foundation, which promotes highway safety. “That is why these officers were out in force to make sure that everyone stays alive on 95." 

The Foundation opened the three-day event with a program featuring discussions with victims’ families, the family of Christina Duvalsaint, who died in a wrong-way accident on I-95 and Connie Beard, whose son Mathew died in a DUI accident on I-95 and a survivor of a crash on I-95, Tom Giddings.

Other speakers included Ellen Roberts and Elizabeth Parker from the State Attorney's Office; former State Rep. Irv Slosberg; Carlos Guzman, Attorney General's Office; Lt. Michael Reardon, Palm Beach County Sheriff’s Office; Major Michael Guzman, Department of Highway Safety & Motor Vehicles; MaryAnn Trussel, Chief Safety Officer, Department of Transportation; George Rogers, Vice President of Geico Insurance Company and Brian LaBovick of  LaBovick & LaBovick Law.

Following the opening of the "Staying Alive on 95" program, police officers and state troopers were staked out along the Interstate from Key West through Jacksonville as part of "saturation patrols." 

Slosberg, who championed highway safety during his six years in the House, said the “increased presence of officers is part of an effort to get drivers to stay safe. We are down in the number of fatalities in the last three years and enforcement mobilization, tough legislation and educating the public through organizations like the Dori Slosberg Foundation will continue the reduction of highway fatalities."