The McMinnville Police Department will be putting more officers on the road from now until Jan. 1 in an effort to keep everyone safe on the roadways.

There have been a decrease in crashes downtown over the last few weeks following saturated patrols in the area. Patrolman Mark Mara says they set up for weeks downtown and saw a decrease in crashes during their patrols and continued to see a decrease after. 

Over the last few months, a lot of wrecks occurred at the red light on W. Main Street in front of the Black House. Mara says many were claiming they both had green lights which he says is impossible.

“Some people are saying they both had green lights and that is impossible because if that ever happened the whole system would fail. The lights would actually go into a flashing mode automatically if that happened,” said Mara.

If there is ever a question, Mara says they reach out to the Street Department which is in charge of the computer system. Officers even sat and watched the traffic lights throughout the day to ensure there were no malfunctions. People speeding and not paying attention are likely the causes of the wrecks at that light.

“People are going to fast so they can’t stop when the lights change or they aren’t paying attention,” said Mara.

Adjustments were actually made to that traffic light to cause a delay when the lights change to hopefully decrease crashes. More saturated patrols are ongoing in areas where many wrecks happen. 

During these patrols, the McMinnville Police Department will be concentrated on reducing speeds, distracted driving, running red lights and seatbelt enforcement. They will be concentrating on the 70 Bypass, Nashville Highway and North Chancery Street, which have seen several crashes lately.