Extra deputies on duty for holiday road safety

YUMA, Ariz. (KYMA) - The Yuma County Sheriff’s Office (YCSO) put a grant to work over Thanksgiving weekend to keep holiday roads safer.

Four deputies worked a special traffic detail from Thursday through Saturday, focusing on speeding, aggressive driving, red-light running, and impaired driving.

The effort is aimed to reduce crashes and injuries during one of the busiest travel weekends of the year.

Locals said they appreciated the extra patrols. Mary Stephenson said, "Then there's less chance of people having accidents and, you know, being harmful to others."

The detail had results: Zero DUIs were issued, though deputies handed out 15 traffic citations over the three days.

Winter visitor Ron Wan added, "They're a deterrent. Yes. Their presence does cut down on crime. So if somebody is thinking about it, they're going to look and see them. They're going to want to go elsewhere."

Stephenson said, "It's safer for the people, you know. It's just I think it's a good idea to make the police presence out there."

YCSO says it's considering running similar traffic details around Christmas and New Year's to keep holiday travel safer for everyone.