Telling parents that two of their children have died because of another driver’s inattention is not a duty any police officer wants.
That’s one reason the Terre Haute Police Department is using some of its Operation Pull Over funds to add patrols to Interstate 70 in Vigo County.
Terre Haute Police Chief John Plasse spoke to the media Friday morning and referred to Tuesday’s crash on Interstate 70 that claimed the lives of two Illinois children, ages 1 and 5.
“We hear people talk about how they won’t drive on I-70 anymore because it has a reputation as a really deadly stretch of roadway,” Plasse said. “And we’ve really not concentrated our efforts up there — as the Terre Haute Police Department, anyway — to try to stop some of that.
“So we’ve talked to the state about using the OPO money that we’ve had left over from previous grants, and they’ve approved us to use that to work on I-70 and target aggressive drivers and distracted drivers, and that’s what we’re going to do.”
Starting Aug. 1 through Aug. 10, THPD officers not on regular duty will be assigned to patrol I-70 from the Indiana-Illinois state line to the Vigo-Clay county line to look for distracted and aggressive drivers in a special Operation Pull Over effort.
Distracted riving — whether caused by cell phone use, texting, putting on make-up or eating — makes the highway more dangerous, and officers will be pulling over those drivers.
Plasse said he hopes the presence of more police on the interstate will be a deterrent.
“If they see a squad car, hopefully they will think about what they’re doing,” the chief said. “And I think the more squad cars that are out there on the interstate, and the more people see that, they’ll think ‘Maybe I should stop what I’m doing,’ and pay more attention.”
He acknowledged that people have busy lives and places to go, but paying less than full attention or driving aggressively is resulting in crashes and deaths.
Plasse said his department is prepared to extend their patrols on the highway through Vigo County past Aug. 10.
“If we need to increase those efforts after that, we will continue to do that,” Plasse said. “We will just figure out another funding source to make that happen.”
This focus will not affect police protection in the city, he said.
“We will not have less coverage in the city. This will be in addition to our regular patrols,” Plasse said, noting some responses to the THPD announcement of Operation Pull Over on its Facebook page have questioned whether city patrols will be decreasing.
The police chief also noted that motorists who linger in the passing lane also will be ticketed, as allowed by a state law passed a couple years ago.
“For people who are impeding the flow of traffic – I always say camping in the passing lane – but if you’re in the passing lane and impeding the flow of traffic, that is also a citable offense we will be looking for,” Plasse said. “And when we have emergency vehicles along the side of the road and people don’t get over in the next lane or slow down, we will look for that behavior as well.”
Plasse said he plans to announce the results of the increased patrols – warnings and tickets issued and arrests made – once the initiative wraps up. But those numbers may not tell the whole story. The numbers won’t account for the number of people who see a squad car and slow down or put down their phones, the chief said.
The patrols will supplement, not replace, efforts by other agencies already targeting the construction zone areas of I-70. Those agencies, including the Indiana State Police and Vigo County Sheriff’s Department, will continue usual their patrols, he said.
Police agencies and the Indiana Department of Transportation are pleading with drivers to pay closer attention to what they are doing while they drive, something Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts has said is critical if anything is to be done about the more than 500 annual crashes that occur on the roughly 60-mile stretch of I-70 between the Illinois state line and Hendricks County.
In Tuesday’s accident, which occurred in Clay County very close to the Clay-Vigo line, Dr. Christina Bereda of O’Fallon, Illinois, was traveling with her three children west on I-70 and was slowing or stopped in traffic when a tractor-trailer failed to slow and hit the family’s van. Another semi was rear-ended as a result of the crash.
Killed were 1-year-old Finley Bereda and 5-year-old Brennen Bereda. Christina Bereda and 3-year-old Jordan Bereda were hospitalized.
The Bereda family had recently moved to O’Fallon, which is in Illinois portion of the St. Louis area. Christina Bereda’s husband, also a doctor, works at Scott Air Force Base, according to the Belleville (Illinois) News-Democrat.
Dr. David Bereda was in Chicago on exercises while Christina Bereda took the children to visit their grandparents in Ohio, the Illinois newspaper reported. They were on their way home when the accident occurred.