MHP and LPD working on safe driving initiatives

PINE BELT, Miss. (WDAM) - The Mississippi Highway Patrol and Laurel Police Department are working to make the roads safer for drivers.

For the second year, MHP is taking the DUI prevention initiative to high schoolers through a program called “PROM,” which stands for ‘please return on Monday.’

“Our goal is to get as many high schools as we can that have proms and speak to these kids, and (tell) them the dangerous about drunk driving, impaired driving and other reckless activities that young adults do behind the wheel,” said Taylor Shows, public affairs officer for MHP Troop J.

The overall goal is to keep high schoolers safe, bringing awareness to how poor choices could become deadly.

“To keep a trooper or another law enforcement officer from going to a family’s house, knocking on their door and giving them that grim news that no one ever wants to hear, that your child lost their life in a vehicle crash because of a poor decision that somebody made,” Shows said.

This initiative also coincides with LPD’s impaired driver and traffic services grant enforcement periods. Their goal is to stop impaired driving from happening within the city limits of Laurel.

“(It) allows us to have extra officers visible on the street ...” said LPD Chief Tommy Cox.

LPD recently released its statistics in relation to an Impaired Driver Grant and Traffic Services Grant in January. The police department said these numbers continue to show positive results.

The January stats were as follows:

• 204 tickets
• 17 DUI arrests
• 2 drug arrests
• 3 felony arrests

Cox credits visibility as the best deterrent for making these arrests.

“Every time were able to run one of these traffic or DUI enforcement periods, then that’s extra officers out on the street, extra cars rolling,” Cox said. “People are paying attention to the extra cars rolling. Hopefully, they’re slowing down.

Hopefully, somebody who might have been out here thinking about committing a crime won’t because we’ll have as much as double a shift on.”

MHP is currently looking to schedule high schools to talk to, and LPD is continuing to be able to put more officers on roadways.

Want more WDAM 7 news in your inbox? Click here to subscribe to our newsletter.

Copyright 2023 WDAM. All rights reserved.