Law enforcement officials in Carbon and Schuylkill Counties are in the midst of an aggressive driving campaign designed to bring attention to and reduce the number of crashes related to distracted driving, work zone safety and speeding.

This campaign coincides with National Distracted Driving Month (April) and National Work Zone Awareness Week.More than 300 municipal police agencies and the Pennsylvania State Police have joined forces to focus on citing motorists who exhibit unsafe driving behavior, including driving too fast for conditions and following too closely. The officers will use strategies such as Traffic Enforcement Zones, Saturation Patrols, Speed Enforcement Details, Corridor Enforcement, Work Zone Enforcement and Multi-Jurisdictional Patrols to identify and cite unsafe drivers.Local North Central Highway Safety Network coordinator Carol Alonge notes "Aggressive driving continues to be one of the greatest threats on our roadways. Enforcement is absolutely necessary to combat this reckless behavior. Police will be stepping up their activities to strengthen awareness of this problem and let the public know they've adopted zero tolerance for any unsafe behavior in Schuylkill and Carbon counties."Participants in this enforcement wave include several departments in Carbon County: Beaver Meadows, Nesquehoning, Kidder Township, Jim Thorpe, Weatherly, Mahoning Township and state police in Lehighton.In Schuylkill County the following departments are participating: Rush Township, Schuylkill Haven, Schuylkill Township, Tamaqua, West Penn Township, Ashland, Butler Township, Frackville, and state police in Schuylkill Haven.In the first of the 2014-15 Aggressive Driving Waves, which was completed on Nov. 22, 2014, participants recorded contacting 13,222 motorists, which resulted in 11,991 citations. Almost 60 percent of those citations were issued for speeding.