The Pennsylvania State Police ran a special detail May 15 to 17 on state Routes 11/15. The combined detail was named Operation Treble Hook, and utilized troopers from Troop H Newport, Troop F Selinsgrove and Troop G Lewistown.
During the three days, roughly 40 troopers worked together to stop 402 vehicles, issuing 368 citations and 223 warnings. There were also three driving under the influence arrests, five drug possession arrests and one arrest warrant served.
The detail operated on a 50-mile stretch from Marysville to Monroe Township in Snyder County. Newport troopers covered the sections of the highway in Perry County; Lewistown troopers covered Juniata County; and Selinsgrove troopers covered Snyder County.
“We picked this area based off of historic crash data we obtained from the crash investigations that the three PSP stations conducted over the past year,” said Sgt. Derek Johnson with Newport PSP Troop H. “In 2022, the three stations investigated 287 crashes on that 50-mile stretch, including five fatal crashes. So, we figured this was an area we needed a little bit of extra attention. We tried to provide more visibility and enforcement throughout the area during the detail.”
Troopers targeted aggressive, distracted and impaired drivers along the route. During the detail, troopers saw the results of the increased enforcement.
“We noticed after the first morning, speeds diminished a little bit over time,” Johnson said. “The first morning of the detail, we had one traffic stop with one of our troopers from the Newport station in Buffalo Twp. (where we) stopped one vehicle for traveling 108 miles an hour. We did see the speeds were slowly starting to go down and toward the end, we were having less and less violations observed, less and less aggressive driving violations observed.”
By the end of the detail, the highest speeds troopers were seeing were in the 80s.
Troopers spoke with business owners and residents along the route, and reportedly received a lot of positive feedback. “They were thanking us for being out there, and they’re the ones that deal with this traffic on a daily basis, and seeing the same problems we see,” Johnson continued. “They deal with it in their backyard.”
During the detail, there were no crashes in Perry County, with only one crash occurring in Snyder County.
“It’s a high volume, high traffic roadway,” said Johnson. “There’s a lot of crashes. I’m not a PennDOT engineer, but with cross traffic, turning lanes and such like that, it has made it a bad area for crashes historically.”
“This corridor along the Susquehanna Trail has historically been an issue, and last year it got my attention because from Liverpool down to Little Cove we had five different fatality crashes throughout 2022,” said Lt. Kenneth Tallman, station commander for Newport PSP. “Our goal this year, as a station, is to reduce the number of fatalities and crashes with injuries and overall just reduce the number of crashes. The best way to reduce crashes is to reduce speed, because if you reduce the speeds, it’s going to give the motorist more time to react if somebody pulls out in front of them.”
Police also face challenges on patrol.
“At times, it’s dangerous for our officers to be out there,” Johnson said. “I mean, on the side of the road, when you have traffic traveling at high rates of speed and some motorists who aren’t following the move-over law, moving over to open lane, it puts our officers in a bad situation.”
Johnson recognized the troopers who participated in the detail, saying, “They did a phenomenal job. They worked very hard out there. We dealt with some hot and inclement weather. The troopers acted professionally and did a nice job trying to reduce crashes in the area.”
“This was overall an successful operation,” Tallman concluded. “Kudos to Sgt. Johnson and the sergeants from the Lewistown and Selinsgrove barracks. It was a great effort and very collaborative. To have just one crash on this 50-mile stretch of roadway in the three-day period is phenomenal. It’s just evidence that the importance, the impact our troopers make on a daily basis by just being visible and slowing people down.”
Just because the detail has ended doesn’t mean there will be less enforcement in the area. “There is going to be an emphasis this year by the Newport station to be out here targeting aggressive, impaired driving and distracted drivers along 11/15,” Tallman said. “Not just up here in Liverpool, but also down on State Road and in Penn Twp. That’s been a concern of ours as well. So, the entire stretch from Liverpool all the way down to Marysville, there will be increased enforcement from the state police.”
Newport PSP has more special operations planned throughout the summer and potentially into the fall. The operations are aimed at reducing crashes.
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