WSP troopers are back out this week conducting an aggressive driving emphasis looking for motorists who drive recklessly, or are unsafe around big trucks.

All this week troopers are conducting a week-long Ticketing Aggressive Cars and Trucks (TACT) emphasis in King County.  The goal of the emphasis is to change driver behavior around big trucks and to reduce the number of injuries and fatalities caused by these collisions.

This week-long emphasis is part of a TACT Project that has WSP troopers and local and county law enforcement conducting four week-long emphases that began in September and will continue through May 2013.

In the first week-long emphasis in September, WSP troopers contacted a total of 485 violators, issued 280 tickets, and conducted 18 Commercial Motor Vehicle inspections.  During the emphasis, troopers also recovered an occupied stolen vehicle and arrested two drivers for violations of their required ignition interlock breath alcohol devices.

The goal of this TACT Project is to change the behavior of car AND truck drivers and reduce the number of crashes, injuries and fatalities. Part of the project is educational, to increase public awareness about unsafe driving behaviors around commercial vehicles (i.e. cutting off trucks, tailgating, failure to yield right of way, speeding, and aggressive driving).

Most of the collisions involving commercial motor vehicles that occur in King County happen on the interstate and state routes.  Officers will patrol I-5 from Seattle to Federal Way, I-90 from Seattle to North Bend, I-405 from Bellevue to Tukwila, SR-167 from SR-18 to I-405, and SR-18 from 6 a.m. to 6 p.m. during the times most collisions occur.  Remaining enforcement dates are March 11-13, 2013, and May 20 – 24, 2013.

This TACT Project is funded with a grant from the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration.  The grant is part of a program directed by Congress in 2004 to educate passenger car drivers on how to share the roadway safely with commercial vehicles.