Auto crashes down 11% in Austin

AUSTIN (KXAN) - Austin Police Department numbers reveal automobile crashes were down 11 percent citywide in 2011.

APD officers also wrote nearly 50,000 fewer tickets in 2011 than they did in 2010, based on preliminary traffic safety data. The department believes the reduction in crashes and citations is due to a targeted strategy in the way they deploy officers to high-crash areas.

"The more we can identify these top crash locations -- focus our enforcement effort on those locations -- our goal is to reduce the number of crashes," said Lt. Ely Reyes with the APD Highway Enforcement Command. "Any time you have concentrated enforcement efforts, compliance always comes along with that."

Reyes said the concentrated enforcement effort began in 2011 and is already showing positive results.

"We're writing less citations, but we're writing better citations- citations that are going to impact crashes and help reduce crashes in the city and help save lives," said Reyes, who has instructed his patrol officers not to make "sticker stops" for expired registration or inspection stickers. "We're shifting their effort to non-hazardous -- writing as many tickets as you can -- to hazardous-focused violations that are going to impact and reduce the number of crashes we have in the city."

According to preliminary 2011 data, APD officers wrote 224,661 traffic tickets in 2010, but last year, they wrote  165,757 tickets.
   
Between October 2010 and October 2011, police responded to 21 crashes in the Slaughter Lane area near Interstate Highway 35, which makes the area the most dangerous in the city of Austin. Officers patrol the area and watch for red-light runners and speeders, as well as drivers who follow too closely.

The intersection of Congress Avenue and Cesar Chavez Street was the second-most dangerous area of the city, with 20 crashes in the same period.

Police review crash report data every two weeks to determine where they will deploy resources.