ORO VALLEY, Ariz. — Morning and evening commuters be warned. Police want you to know they will be at Oracle and Magee every week.
“It’s called the HVE [pronounced hive] and it stands for High Visibility Enforcement,” said Officer Matt Lesage.
Distracted drivers are often so oblivious, high visibility can be hard to achieve.
“I’ll be going down Oracle 50 mph looking at a driver who's looking down at their phone the whole time,” said Lesage. “And I'll be looking in their window from the driver side and they never see me.”
Oracle and Magee is one of Oro Valley’s most dangerous intersections.
“We see a lot of red-light violations, distracted driving violations, tailgating, and passing on the shoulder so we are looking for those violations.”
Lesage says high visibility enforcement at one point in 2013 brought collisions in the area down 25%. These efforts halted during stay-at-home orders and Lesage says collisions started rising again when people started commuting more. Now they are renewing their efforts.
“We are trying to basically make culture change, when it comes to distracted driving, we try to make as many contacts as possible and advise them of the consequences of distracted driving.”
He wants people to remember to be safe, and make it to the holidays in one peice.
“It can wait, there is nothing that important that you can endanger someone else life or your own by using your cell phone while on the roadway.”
