Every year, city code requires the Warsaw Police Department to present a traffic report on crashes and citations in the prior year.
Friday, Police Chief Scott Whitaker presented the annual traffic report to the Warsaw Board of Public Works and Safety. The report also will go before the Traffic Commission Wednesday, and Whitaker will distribute copies to each of the Common Council members.
Mayor Jeff Grose said there was a lot of information in the four-page document. He pointed out the parking statistics on the last page. He said they’re enforcing the parking rules and the idea is to make it better.
“So I’m going to see what we can work through this summer to maybe improve on those numbers, make it less violations and more uniform by people who are coming to the downtown,” Grose said.

    Shown is a graph from the Warsaw Police Department annual traffic report on parking statistics within the city. Graph Provided by Warsaw Police Department
  

In 2024, WPD issued 1,422 parking violations and 14 written parking warnings, according to the report. That’s up from 810 parking violations in 2023 but with warnings down from 50 in 2023.
“Obviously, the parking citations were significantly higher, as you noted,” Whitaker said.
Councilwoman Diane Quance said she knows the downtown merchants appreciate the increase in enforcement on parking violations.
In 2024, the highest number of violations given were 605 for improper parking with 13 warnings. That’s up from 138 violations and 35 warnings in 2023.
There were 416 violations and zero warnings in 2024 for first overtime parking, down from 473 violations and three warnings in 2023.
In 2024, there were 159 violations for alley parking/blocking driveway, up from 73 in 2023.
Other 2024 violations listed in the report for parking included 18 for second overtime parking (up from 17 in 2023); 15-minute parking, 43 violations and one warning (up from 26 violations in 2023); 44 for handicapped parking (up from 21 violations and one warning in 2023); 64 violations for no parking (up from 39 violations and 10 warnings in 2023); and 73 violations for City Hall parking (up from 23 violations and one warning in 2023).
On crashes, Whitaker said they’ve been similar from year to year. There were less in 2024 on U.S. 30 at 101, compared to 142 in 2023. Detroit Street (Ind. 15) dropped from 171 to 129 in 2024.
The number of crashes - including parking lot/private property crashes used with the street name - for Center Street dropped from 88 in 2023 to 81 in 2024. Winona Avenue had 27 in 2023 and 22 in 2024; Market Street, 22 in both years; Walton Boulevard, 16 in 2023 and 30 in 2024; Buffalo Street, 16 in 2023 and seven in 2024; and Parker Street dropped from 26 in 2023 to 19 in 2024.

    Shown is a graph from the Warsaw Police Department annual traffic report highlighting the roads within the city with the highest number of crashes. Graph Provided by Warsaw Police Department
  

In both 2023 and 2024, rear-end collisions were the highest at 225 and 205, respectively. That was followed by right-angle crashes - 186 in 2023 and 194 in 2024 - followed by backing at 120 and 104 and same-direction sideswipe at 91 and 101.
“Unfortunately, we did sustain two fatalities in 2024 in the city,” he said. That was up from one in 2023.
Property damage crashes numbered 653 in 2024, down from 734 in 2023. Injury collisions totaled 156 in 2024, similar to the 155 in 2023. Total injuries were 212 in 2024, with 210 in 2023.
Collisions by month in 2024 totaled 79 in January (up from 75 in 2023); 71, February (up from 60 in 2023); 59, March (down from 62 in 2023); 61, April (same as 2023); 61, May (down from 79 in 2023); 76, June (down from 80 in 2023); 63, July (down from 81 in 2023); 64, August (down from 76 in 2023); 64, September (up from 57 in 2023); 63, October (down from 83 in 2023); 82, November (down from 95 in 2023); and 68 in December (down from 82 in 2023).
More collisions - 154 in 2024 - happened on Friday than any other day of the week, followed by 146 on Thursday. That was reverse of 2023 when there were 142 collisions on Thursday and 139 on Friday.
More accidents occurred between 4 and 6:59 p.m. in 2024 when people were leaving from work than any other time of the day at 194 collisions. The next worse time for collisions was 11 a.m. to 1:59 p.m. when people were on lunch breaks at 158 collisions. In 2023, those two time periods were tied at 192 collisions.
Top three contributing circumstances for collisions in 2024 and in 2023 were following too closely (131 and 163, respectively), failure to yield right-of-way (168 and 176) and unsafe backing (110 and 132). Cell phone use was the least contributing circumstance at three in 2024 and five in 2023.
In 2024, WPD issued 5,070 citations, arrests and warnings for traffic violations.
Under misdemeanor uniform traffic tickets (UTT), there were 121 operating while intoxicated in 2024, 130 driving while suspended and 39 operator never licensed. Comparatively, the 2023 statistics for that category were 106 operating while intoxicated, 167 driving while suspended and 37 operator never licensed.
Under infraction UTT in 2024, there were 115 seat belt and 16 child restraint violations, up from 94 in 2023; 1,126 for speeding, up from 450 in 2023; and 109 for driving while suspended, down from 153 in 2023.
Under felony traffic, there were 23 in 2024 for operating while intoxicated with a prior, down from 30 in 2023; and eight habitual traffic violators, down from 23 in 2023.
Finally, under the category marked “warning traffic,” there were 1,134 in 2024 for speed, up from 1,063 in 2023; 526 in 2024 for no or improper lights, up from 361 in 2023; and 279 for disregarding signal or sign, up from 275 in 2023.
On the overall report, Quance said, “It’s really fascinating reading and we can decide what time of day you want to drive and what streets you want to drive on by reading it.”
She thanked the WPD for the work that was put into the report.
The Board of Works unanimously approved the traffic report.