This article in today’s Hartford Courant caught my eye:
Police were out in force [on US 44 at Avon Mountain] Friday morning and evening in an effort, called Operation Rush Hour, to reinforce the need for motorists to drive carefully and stay within the speed limit.
Officers who are pulling motorists over on the mountain roadway are handing out copies of a police department flier that reminds drivers to stay in their lanes, and avoid tailgating and speeding.[...]
After next week, friendly persuasion is likely to give way to a ticketing campaign. “Then we’ll take a pretty aggressive approach,” Rinaldo said.
Since a July 29 dump truck crash that killed four people at the base of the mountain, local and state officials have paid increased attention to improving traffic safety on the steep, curving stretches of Route 44 on the mountain in Avon and West Hartford. The ongoing rush-hour police effort is part of that response.
It should be noted that Avon and West Hartford police have been largely absent from Avon Mountain, with the exception of a few days after that accident, allowing BMW’s, Expeditions, and dump trucks to careen around the tight corners of US 44 at 50-60mph, in most forms of weather.
Most of the attention so far has been in replacing signage on the mountain with bigger signs, constructing pull-out areas for the absent constables to use if they’d actually enforce the speed limits.
Oh, and lets not forget that the Governor and ConnDOT have been using last July’s accident as an excuse to bring photo-radar speed enforcement to the state.
With the Krispy Kreme closed, you’d think that additional police resources would have been freed up to…oh, I don’t know…actually enforce safety laws.