Virginia State Police To Target Speeders in Hampton Roads Area
The Virginia State Police recently announced that they will launch the next phase of Operation Air, Land and Speed in the greater Hampton Roads area on March 12th and 13th, 2009. While the operation primarily targets speeders, it is intended to catch a wide variety of traffic violations, including reckless and aggressive drivers, impaired drivers, and people not wearing their safety belts.
As they did last time, law enforcement personnel will be targeting I-264, I-464 and I-664 in the Hampton Roads region. A large concentration of state troopers will patrol I-64 from its interchange with I-81 at Staunton to where it ends in Hampton Roads.
The Virginia State Police recently posted a press release that lists the following statistics from last year’s campaign:
Last July, the safety campaign focused enforcement efforts in the same area and yielded 3,303 violations during a two day period. The Operation Air, Land & Speed initiative resulted in 1,684 speeders being stopped, 298 reckless drivers being cited, five impaired drivers being arrested and 189 safety belt violations being cited by state police. The enforcement project also resulted in 21 drug and/or felony arrests.
We anticipate that a large number of tickets will be issued during this new phase of Operation Air, Land and Speed. Virginia drivers who are ticketed in the Hampton Roads area should be advised that they can attend Virginia Driver Improvement to gain safe driving points to offset points from tickets they have received. A maximum of 5 safe driving points can be attained for attendance of a driver improvement clinic. This Virginia traffic school option is also available to drivers who are court ordered to attend a driver improvement clinic.
Virginia driver improvement clinics are offered online or in the classroom. Drivers can visit the Virginia DMV list of approved driver improvement clinics to locate a school in their area, or they can attend an online clinic. Both the online and classroom clinics are 8 hours and cover defensive driving topics intended to increase the safety awareness of Virginia drivers.
Those who select an online clinic should be aware that they will have to take a final exam at an approved testing center. The exam itself is usually short, and an additional testing fee ($5 – $10) might be required depending on the testing center chosen.
Note to out of state drivers who receive a traffic ticket in Virginia: If you sign up for an online driver improvement clinic, you must take your final exam in person at a testing center located in Virginia. This is a DMV requirement.
