Wilmington PD partners with businesses to encourage safe driving on S. College Rd

WILMINGTON, N.C. (WECT) - Wilmington police worked with a dozen businesses Wednesday to get one message across: pay attention to the road.

Police were making an extra effort to pull over any vehicles that were either speeding or violating minor traffic laws from Oriole Drive down to Wilshire Boulevard.

Nearly a dozen businesses like UNCW, McDonald’s, Network Real Estate and Cruisers Car Wash displayed safe driving messages on their signs such as “Slow Down and Pay Attention” and “Entering High Crash Zone.”

Although there were 27 stops made during the morning rush hour, only two tickets were given out. Police instead wanted to use this event to make their presence known to Wilmington drivers.

"Everybody pay attention, you know, the morning rush hour and afternoon rush hour are the worst, so when you’re driving especially on these busy roads, just slow down, pay attention, everything else can wait,” Schwartzel said.

Cpl. Scwartzel believes the reason they see so much unsafe driving in Wilmington is that people get complacent.

"You know, its routine when they go from the house to the office when they get kids from camp, you know, people get complacent and they lose focus on how important it is to pay attention while driving,” he said.

Although South College Rd. averages anywhere from five to ten car accidents a day, police are happy to report that there was not a single collision during their demonstration in the morning rush hour.

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