May 31, 2018 2 min read

WAYNESBURG – State police blanketed Greene County during the three-day Memorial Day holiday weekend, issuing 205 traffic tickets, more than half of which were for speeding.

Troopers wrote 106 speeding tickets while centering their patrols mainly in Franklin, Monongahela, Washington and Whiteley townships, online court records indicate.

The 163 citations issued Saturday and Sunday were split nearly evenly between those two days – an average of one ticket nearly every 17 minutes – while only 42 tickets were written on Memorial Day, according to online court records.

Troopers wrote a little more than 35,000 citations statewide between Friday and Monday, which is nearly 6,000 more than the previous year. Ryan Tarkowski, a spokesman for Pennsylvania State Police in Harrisburg, said the holiday weekend’s special detail coincided with the national “Click-It or Ticket” campaign.

“These things kind of fluctuate from year to year. We can’t really put our finger on why they go up or down,” Tarkowski said of the increase in traffic tickets this year. “I don’t know if there is a common thread. Speed enforcement is a big thing we do on holiday weekends because there are so many people on the road.”

Tarkowski said troopers also focused on distracted driving, although only one person was cited by state police in Greene County for texting while driving.

“Distracted driving is very dangerous,” Tarkowski said. “Our troopers and local law enforcement across the country are really cracking down on them.”

In Greene County, the majority of 98 tickets issued in Monongahela, Washington and Whiteley townships were for speeding. Police issued 72 citations Franklin Township, most of which were for registration or inspection violations. State police also wrote eight citations in Waynesburg Borough and nine in Jefferson Township. There was a smattering of tickets written by state police in Cumberland, Dunkard, Morgan and Perry townships.

Citations by community

Franklin – 72

Monongahela – 41

Washington – 34

Whitelely – 23

Jefferson – 9

Waynesburg – 8

State police in Waynesburg did not return a phone message Wednesday requesting information on the weekend patrols.

The statistics do not include any traffic citations over the weekend by municipal police departments.

The number of people killed in crashes across Pennsylvania investigated by state police dropped from nine in 2017 to just three this year, one of which involved alcohol. There were no deadly crashes in the Troop B area, where the barracks in Belle Vernon, Washington and Waynesburg are located.