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Local Agencies Join Forces To Make Crash-Prone Roads In Harford Co. Safer

BEL AIR, Md. (WJZ)—There's a new push to make the roads safer in Harford County on the heels of several deadly accidents.

Mike Schuh explains police agencies are joining forces to protect drivers.

Recently, Harford County has seen its share of ugly fatal crashes.

Friends of the victims are having a hard time making sense of what happened.

One crash killed a long time county employee and a well-liked developer. Three months earlier, along another crash-prone highway, three siblings died after a sideswipe and subsequent accident.

State police crash data shows the busy roads around Bel Air and paralleling I-95 to be the most dangerous.

But when it comes to fatal accidents, they are spread out all over the county.

That's where these law enforcement professionals come in, from county police to state police with Aberdeen, Bel Air and Havre de Grace police signing on in agreement.

"This partnership will allow us to saturate areas we've identified as high crash areas around Harford County,' said Lt. Charles Moore, Maryland State Police.

On average, 25 people a year die in Harford County in crashes. They're trying to lower that number.

"To decrease the amount of speeding and the amount of aggressive driving that we have and drunk driving that we have. We hope the presence of police officers will help to decrease that type of activity," said Chief Leo Matrangola, Bel Air Police Department.

So for one day a week, the police will team up. As many as a dozen officers will be on traffic patrols outside their usual jurisdictions.

"If they see a member of an allied department outside their normal area of patrol they can expect the traffic task force is in that area addressing a problem in that location," said a Maryland state police officer.

The agreement between those police agencies is open-ended.

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