Crime & Safety

Abington Police to Target Aggressive Drivers

The police department landed a grant to combat aggressive driving on two of the township's main arteries.

Those driving in Abington may want to lay off the tall, skinny pedal.

The Abington Police Department in September will be cracking down on aggressive drivers on Moreland and Old York roads. The department received a PennDOT grant, which will allow it to place more officers on both of these roads — up from one officer to four or five officers, according to Abington Public Safety Police Officer Al Freed. The location of the grant is based on crash and violation statistics, Freed said.

In addition to having more officers patrolling the area, Freed said the grant will allow the police department to bring in Pennsylvania State Troopers, which can comb the area with radar.

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Abington Police Chief William Kelly said while special details like the crackdown on aggressive drivers aren’t done all year, they help raise consciousness with drivers — and that helps reduce speeding and aggressive driving in the township throughout the year.

According to the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation’s “Just Drive PA” safe driving initiative, aggressive driving habits includes:
  • Speeding
  • Tailgating
  • Racing to beat red lights
  • Running stop signs
  • Weaving in and out of traffic
  • Failure to yield to vehicles

According to preliminary data from PennDOT, there were about 6,700 aggressive-driving crashes in Pennsylvania last year; 183 of them were fatal.

Find out what's happening in Abingtonwith free, real-time updates from Patch.

Montgomery County has the second-highest number of locally-maintained streets in the state and the third-most crashes — behind only Philadelphia and Allegheny counties — according to PennDOT. There were about 4,200 crashes with injuries in Montgomery County last year and 41 of them were fatal. 

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Where is the worst spot in the township for aggressive drivers? Let us know in the comments.


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