Troop B leads Pennsylvania in Thanksgiving enforcement, alcohol-related crashes
State police saw a rise in crashes across Pennsylvania during the Thanksgiving travel period, and the local police troop led the state in alcohol-related crashes and four different enforcement categories.
From Wednesday through Sunday, state police across all 16 troops investigated 1,116 crashes, a 13.8 percent increase from the 981 crashes investigated during last year’s Thanksgiving holiday driving period, police reported.
Of the 1,116 crashes investigated, 80 were alcohol-related, 213 people were injured, and four people were killed in four crashes – the same death toll as last year’s Thanksgiving period.
Troop B, which covers Fayette, Greene and Washington counties as well as southern portions of Westmoreland County and most of Allegheny County, easily had the highest total among all of alcohol-related crashes at 15, five more than the next-highest troop, Troop J covering Lancaster and Chester counties. Nearly one in every five alcohol crashes over the Thanksgiving crash period happened within Troop B’s coverage area.
Troop B also led all troops with 70 DUI arrests, 245 seat-belt citations, 3,029 other citations and 55 criminal arrests.
Troop B ranking high statewide in both holiday travel crashes and enforcement isn’t new. It led the state in crashes, injuries, DUIs, seat-belt citations, other citations and self-initiated criminal arrests for the 2018 Labor Day travel period, as well as crashes during the 2017 Christmas holiday period and other citations during last year’s Thanksgiving period.
From last year’s Thanksgiving period to this year’s, Troop B saw increases in total crashes (from 76 to 80), alcohol-related crashes (14 to 15), DUI enforcements (62 to 70), seat-belt citations (134 to 245), other citations (2,240 to 3,029) and criminal arrests (41 to 55).
Statewide, troopers made 637 DUI arrests over the long holiday weekend, up slightly from 629 last year. Speeding citations across the Commonwealth declined 12.9 percent from last year to 13,863. These statistics cover only incidents investigated by state police and do not include statistics on incidents to which other law enforcement agencies in Pennsylvania responded.