Mohammad Amad pulled the first truck over at 10:16 p.m. Thursday, a red pickup with a defective headlamp.

Amad, a member of the Harris County Sheriff’s Office’s DWI task force, spoke briefly with the driver, then waved him on his way. No scent of alcohol.

“He’s just getting off work,” Amad said, tapping a few notes on his computer before heading back into the hunt.

Lights from patrol cars illuminated Texas 249 like a string of Christmas decorations as deputies and police worked similar traffic stops Thursday and Friday night.

This marked the first operation of a local task force created in response to last year’s Houston Chronicle investigation, “Out of Control,” which found that the Houston region is home to the nation’s most dangerous roads. More than 600 motorists, passengers and pedestrians die every year in traffic collisions often caused by drivers who are speeding, driving while intoxicated or distracted and often on poorly designed roads.

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The Chronicle’s investigation found a lack of a comprehensive strategy to fight the thousands of serious traffic crashes that plague the region, devastate families and cost countless dollars every year. In some cases, local authorities reduced enforcement even as traffic fatalities rose.

In the wake of the investigation, Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez called for the formation of a regional task force to better patrol roads. Sheriff’s officials said their goal is to crack down on traffic violations and unsafe driving in the hopes of preventing serious crashes. Saturating the area also makes drivers more aware and more likely to tap their brakes.

“We want to make sure we’re visible, and not just performing spot enforcement,” Gonzalez said. “And make it more sustainable.”

Shortly after 10 p.m. Thursday, more than 30 officers and deputies from the sheriff’s office, the Houston Police Department, the Department of Public Safety, and constables’ offices 1 and 8 blanketed a 10-mile stretch of TX 249 from Interstate 45 to its intersection with FM 1960 in Willowbrook.

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The highway, which snakes 26 miles through northwest Harris County to Pinehurst, has weathered 42 fatal crashes over the last five years, according to Texas Department of Transportation data.

Houston Police Traffic Enforcement Division Cmdr. Kenneth Campbell said the high number of officers working in tandem — which was more than six times the size of the sheriff’s office’s DWI Task force — yielded better results.

“We covered a very large portion of 249 because we had so many different units and were hitting so many different places,” Campbell said. “Having the extra resources there proved to be very effective.”

On Thursday night, officers tried to pull over a driver in a blue Mustang who fled from Houston into unincorporated Harris County, he said. Task force officers responded to a crash miles away, only to find the Mustang. The driver had been speeding and overshot a turn, hopping a sidewalk and plowing dozens of yards across a grassy field before finally stopping.

The task force officers recognized the vehicle and detained the driver.

By the end of the night, the army of officers had made dozens of stops. Some were for minor offenses: defective headlights, or expired registration. In some cases, they were able to drive off with a brief chat and a warning.

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Others got stopped for speeding or weaving in and out of their lanes after too many drinks. Deputies pulled over a wrong-way driver who confessed to drinking five Coronas before getting behind the wheel to head home. They arrested another driver for unlawfully carrying a weapon.

Over the two days, task force officers made 406 traffic stops, issued 263 written warnings, wrote 297 tickets and made 38 arrests — 23 for drunk driving and 15 for other crimes.

“That’s a good two days,” said DPS Sgt. Erik Burse. “You’re taking DWI drivers off the road, capturing people wanted by the state of Texas. … That’s what a task force wants to do.”

Gonzalez said he hoped local law enforcement would find ways to have a visible, continued presence.

“We have to make sure we build on this momentum so that everyone feels safer driving their families on our roads every day,” he said. “Not just during these short term initiatives.”

Authorities hope to run similar efforts monthly. The Houston Police Department plans to lead one in February, and the Harris County Precinct 8 Constable’s Office is planning one in southeast Harris County in March, specifically focused on drunk-driving enforcement.

Kara Macek of the Washington D.C.-based Governors Highway Safety Association said efforts like the task force’s recent initiative are key to making drivers more aware of their behavior and getting them to slow down.

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“Law enforcement is absolutely critical to change behavior,” she said. “We’ve seen this with drunk driving, with effective campaigns like Click-it or Ticket … The more we can get law enforcement engaged, the better.”

But Macek and criminal justice reform advocates said the region would have to take additional steps to reduce the death toll across greater Houston.

“We need to do more and think more strategically about prioritizing safety over getting cars from Point A to Point B as quickly as possible,” Macek said. “We need to think about getting people from Point A to Point B as safely as possible.”

Franklin Bynum, a newly elected misdemeanor jurist, said improving street design and increasing access to public transit across the region would be more effective than issuing citations and clogging the court system with more cases.

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“We live in a city of unsafe streets, that requires people to drive around,” he said. “If you engineer safer streets — if you build transit, and give people options to get around even when drinking — that’s something that … you’re reaping the benefits of every day.”

Around 2 a.m., after helping arrest the wrong-way driver, Amad returned to Texas 249, driving south.

It was closing time, and many impaired motorists would be hitting the road.

“Church is over,” he joked. “They’ll be on their way home.”

Moments later, a white Toyota Highlander barreled toward him, traveling 15 miles above the speed limit.

Amad revved his engine, spun around and headed off in pursuit.

Staff writer Dug Begley contributed to this story.

st.john.smith@chron.com





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