Warsaw Police Department has increased its surveillance of U.S. 30 within the city’s area, and Capt. Joel Beam offered some statistics to the Traffic Commission Wednesday on those efforts.
In September 2022, Beam said WPD wrote 111 citations, made five arrests and had 14 accidents.
In September 2023, there were 13 accidents, 13 arrests and WPD wrote 318 tickets. A Winona Lake Police Department officer also was involved in those efforts.
Beam said they’re working extremely hard and doing the best that they can.
“I know anymore there’s hardly a time that I drive out there that I don’t see an officer watching and/or having someone pulled over,” Councilwoman Cindy Dobbins stated.
Councilman Mike Klondaris asked if most of those tickets were for speeding or red light running. Beam said both, but he estimated about 90% were for speeding, with some of them for vehicles going 75-80 mph.
Beam then offered a comment on one other matter.
“Along those lines of school safety, it is Oct. 4. And for some people, it may be just another regular day. But for others, they are mourning the loss of Gidieon Cook,” he said.
Cook was killed in a school zone on June 10, 2019. He would have been 13 on Wednesday, Beam said.
“So when you’re going through those school zones, we’re not lowering speeds to make revenue. We’re lowering speed so we can protect those kids out there walking home,” Beam said.
He asked drivers to think of Cook whenever they’re driving through school zones.
Beam displayed a photo of Gidieon on the projector screen at the Commission meeting.
According to a previous Times-Union story, Cook was 8 years old when on June 10, 2019, Warsaw police and other first responders were dispatched to the area of Husky Trail and North Pointe Drive for a car-versus-pedestrian accident at that intersection. Officers found Cook, who was suffering from extensive injuries. He later was pronounced dead at Whitley Parkview Hospital.
He had just finished the second grade at Harrison Elementary School.
During the investigation, it was found that then-24-year-old Raven L. Loubert, of Tippecanoe, had hit Cook while he was in the crosswalk crossing Husky Trail.
A grand jury convened on Cook’s death decided on no indictment for the offense of reckless homicide would be issued in the case. Due to law requiring confidentiality of grand jury proceedings, no information was disclosed of the presentation details to the grand jury and the reasons for the grand jury’s decision.
His mother created the Gidieon Orion Cook Memorial Fund at the Kosciusko County Community Foundation in his memory.
In other business, the Traffic Commission:
• Heard from city engineer Aaron Ott that his Bison Lane engineering study wasn’t complete yet, but he would be prepared to present it at the Nov. 1 meeting.
• Heard from City Council President Jack Wilhite that he wanted to sit down with City Planner Justin Taylor about the municipal code review before presenting it to the full Traffic Commission.
• Heard from Commission member Connie Fribley that Tina Phipps asked her about the yellow painted line extending the no-parking area on South Washington Street at the corner of Winona Avenue. Fribley wanted to know if anything was being done on that.
Street Superintendent Dustin Dillon asked her if it had not been extended yet. Fribley said no, and Dillon said he’d work on that with the state highway.
• Heard from Dillon that he received a phone call Wednesday morning regarding Eagle Street, between Union and Logan, about high school traffic right after school hours and the perception of high-speeding vehicles. The street department’s sign technician is going to make sure there’s some posted speed limit signs out there. The speed limit is 30 mph.
Beam said that’s a patrol issue as well.