Traffic problems light in Covington
Published 12:00 am Tuesday, September 3, 2002
As of Monday morning, it appears
the Labor Day weekend was fairly safe for Covington County roadways in terms of major vehicular accidents.
According to a spokesman with the Alabama State Troopers, no major accidents were reported in the county as of noon Monday.
"It appears things have been pretty quiet (in the county)," said the spokesperson.
Andalusia Police Chief Wilbur Williams, Jr. reported that things were also calm in the city jurisdiction area during the Labor Day weekend.
"Overall it has been pretty quiet," said Williams. "Our officers have reported to me that it has been a fairly uneventful weekend (as far as traffic mishaps), although I am still waiting to hear the numbers and some of the information about the Click it or Ticket campaign."
Junior Anderson, an officer with the Opp Police Department, also reported things as going pretty smoothly during the holiday weekend.
"The traffic has been heavy, and that is just due to people heading to the beach," said Anderson. "We have not had any mishaps or wrecks, however and we have not written a lot of tickets."
He said the majority of citations had been written for seat belt and speeding violations.
For the state, overall, things did not go quite as smoothly as at least eight people were confirmed to have died in holiday weekend accidents as of Monday morning.
This included two people in a single-vehicle accident in Madison County.
Other fatal accidents were reported in Franklin County, Jackson County, Lauderdale County, Tuscaloosa County and on Interstate 65 near Clanton.
In several of the cases, drivers or passengers were listed as not wearing seat belts.
The eight deaths is still down from the estimated number of fatalities from the state's Department of Public Safety.
The Department of Public Safety predicted 13 persons would die on Alabama roads during the Labor Day holiday weekend.