Suffolk police target aggressive drivers

A new Suffolk County Police task force has handed out more than 2,000 tickets in the last seven weeks in a daunting effort to get aggressive Long Island drivers to chill.

The nine officers have been targeting aggressive and distracted drivers in a county that led the state in traffic fatalities in 2009.

Police Commissioner Richard Dormer said he has no illusions the effort will change Long Island's driving culture. "It's been that way forever. Drivers here are aggressive," he said.

"But we've got to try," Dormer said, noting that task force members are assigned to different locations daily. "They could be in any precinct on any given day."

County officials said the task force issued 2,242 tickets between March 30, the day the crackdown began, and May 15, the most recent date for which statistics were available.

Among the citations were: 384 for speeding, 148 for driving while talking on a cellphone, 98 for not obeying red lights and other traffic devices, 83 for not stopping at a stop sign, and 51 for making an illegal turn or turning without signaling.

Officials said the effort contributed to an increase in all traffic citations Suffolk police handed out between March 30 and April 30, helping to boost the output from 14,478 last year to 16,531 during the same period this year.

In total, county police gave out 53,725 citations for moving violations last year in the five towns it covers. The other five towns, in the eastern portion of the county, are policed by their own departments.

The concern is evident. According to the Institute for Traffic Safety Management and Research, 138 motorists and pedestrians died on Suffolk's roads in 2009, the most recent year for which statistics were available. Nassau and Queens counties were tied for second place statewide with 83 traffic fatalities each that year.

Nassau County gave out 201,688 tickets for moving violations in 2010. Nassau Police Det. Lt. Kevin Smith said his department also plans a crackdown on aggressive driving this summer.

During a recent afternoon rush hour, one of the Suffolk task force members, Officer Keith Cashman, inched along in the traffic on Route 347 in Hauppauge. Cashman, 49, was looking for "shoulder runners" -- drivers using the road's shoulder to pass other cars stuck in the gridlock.

"It's dangerous because you're not expecting them to be there," he said.

For a while, Cashman's presence in a marked police car seemed to have an impact. No one jumped the queue, and no texting was evident.

But soon, Cashman spotted a woman cutting around traffic on the shoulder, heading into a strip mall.

The woman, who wouldn't give her name, told Cashman she was on her way to cash in a load of plastic bottles she was carrying. Noting that she once drove a school bus, the woman said she was driving safely by using her rearview mirrors.

Cashman gave her a $135 summons for having an obstructed view.

A few minutes later, Cashman pulled over another driver who had jumped out of a line of backed-up cars and driven on the wrong side of the road to get to a left-turn lane. "You can't do that," Cashman told the man, who also wouldn't give his name. He handed the man a $130 citation for driving on the left of pavement markings.

Cashman began his career 28 years ago as a New York City police officer. But he couldn't handle the commute from his home on Long Island. He went to work for the Nassau police, then Suffolk County police in 1988.

"I used to be one of them," he said, pointing to commuters in backed-up traffic on Route 347 in Hauppauge. "People drive aggressively because they're in a hurry. They're trying to get home for dinner. I understand that."