Niagara County
Niagara County Sheriff James Voutour represented the Traffic Safety Committee of the National Sheriff’s Association last month at a program in front of U.S. Department of Transportation headquarters in Washington. Voutour joined Elaine L. Chao, secretary of transportation, for the kick-off remarks for the National Traffic Incident Response Awareness Week event. The sheriff said vehicle crashes cost Americans $871 billion last year in lost productivity, medical costs, and legal and court costs.
Since 2000, 160 law enforcement officers were struck and killed by vehicles according to the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, accounting for more than half of the line-of-duty deaths. And more than half of those officers failed to wear seat belts. "We can do better,” Voutour said. “We must do better."