OIL CITY — The Pennsylvania Department of Transportation, Pennsylvania State Police and various municipal police departments are urging motorists across the state to avoid aggressive driving behaviors to keep the state’s roadways safe.

“Safety is a major focus at PennDOT, not just when we design our bridges and roadways, but also when we think about the drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians who use them,” said Brian McNulty, PennDOT District 1 Executive. “Aggressive driving is a preventable safety hazard, and we are proud to partner with area police to encourage a decrease in that behavior.”

In 2020, aggressive driving was a factor in 304 crashes in PennDOT’s District 1, which includes Crawford, Erie, Forest, Mercer, Venango, and Warren counties. This represents a five-year high for the northwest region, which has experienced an increase in aggressive driving-related crashes in each of the past two years with 290 in 2019 and 246 in 2018.

Corresponding with the overall increase in aggressive driving-related crashes has been an uptick in speeding. Following a low of 117 in 2018, the number of crashes with at least one driver’s action being speeding jumped to 171 in 2019 and 189 in 2020.

Since 2016, there have been 26 fatalities in District 1 resulting from aggressive driving, including three in 2020.

To help curb dangerous driving behaviors, PSP and local police departments will participate in an aggressive driving enforcement wave from July 5 to Aug. 22.

Factors that comprise aggressive driving are making illegal U-turn, improper/careless turning, turning from wrong lane, proceeding w/o clearance after stop, running stop sign, running red light, failure to respond to other traffic control device, tailgating, sudden slowing/stopping, careless passing or lane change, passing in no passing zone, making improper entrance to highway, making improper exit from highway, speeding, driving too fast for conditions, and driver fleeing police.