ALLEN, Texas — If you want to get a glimpse of just how busy North Texas is, all you have to do is pick any stretch of road within the city of Allen or Collin County.
Traffic can be bumper to bumper at times, but the problem isn’t the amount of people on the roadways; it’s what they’re doing behind the wheel.
In 2023, there were 3,222 crashes within Allen city limits according to Allen Police Chief Steve Dye. Chief Dye said that’s roughly nine crashes a day. Out of those, nearly 600 resulted in some kind of injury.
“The number one complaint to my office is driving behavior, mainly speeding and distracted driving,” Dye said. Last year, 27% of the officers killed in North Texas died of traffic-related injuries.
The problem of speeding and distracted driving is an issue the county is seeing as well.
“I can get out here within five minutes and catch somebody driving an excess of 100 miles an hour,” said Collin County Sheriff Jim Skinner.
The sheriff said this year there have been 35 Texans who have died on county roads in a crash.
To fix the issue, the two have come together along with the help of the Texas Department of Public Safety and Allen Fire Department.
They’re working on a three-phase initiative to crack down on distracted and aggressive driving in the city. Phase-1, which started May 1, placed more patrol officers along U.S, 75 and State Highway 121, two areas where speeding is a problem.
Officers and deputies are looking for drivers who are speeding, distracted, or doing other dangerous behaviors behind the wheel.
Dye says this will be in place until they see a change in driving patterns.
Police have issued 191 citations on freeways under the new initiative, he says.
“We're going to keep addressing the aggressive driving behaviors until the culture changes,” Dye said.
Phase 2 will start in the summer. It will be a public awareness campaign led by the fire department followed by Phase 3, which will look at different engineering ways to calm traffic down.
In 2023, 27% of the officers killed in North Texas died of traffic-related injuries. Skinner said in order to make sure the roads within Allen are safe, people simply need to slow down.
“Slowing down is going to save lives,” he said.