Notorious as a speeding corridor in Salisbury Township, South Pike Avenue March 31, was not the place to be for drivers who do not respect traffic safety laws.

The roadway was blanketed by 11 police officers from Salisbury Township and the City of Allentown during an aggressive driving traffic safety detail to curb speeding and other traffic safety infractions between Emmaus Avenue and West Rock Road.

The detail resulted in 33 traffic stops by Salisbury officers and about two dozen by Allentown police during the four-hour traffic safety blitz.

“This was a very productive traffic safety detail in curbing aggressive driving,” Salisbury Police Department Senior Patrol Officer Bryan Losagio said. Losagio is the department’s traffic safety coordinator.

“We posted north and south bound lanes with several large ‘Speed Timing Zone’ warning signs as our goal is not to issue a citation, but to get people to slow down,” Losagio said. “But, there were about 50 motorists in our four-hour detail that apparently didn’t take the warning signs seriously.”

Seventeen citations were issued by Salisbury officers for speeding, three for failing to obey traffic control devices, eight for expired inspection or emissions, one for a driver with a suspended registration, one without valid insurance and one for a suspended driver’s license, Losagio said. One vehicle was impounded for violations. One vehicle was clocked at 69 miles per hour in the 40 mph zone.

“Now that the nice weather is returning we expect speeding and aggressive driving incidents to go up, and we will be out in force working to keep our roadways safe for township residents and for those passing through our community,” Losagio said.

“Besides aggressive driving, we also will continue to target the use of seatbelts. Departments all over our state will have extra aggressive driving patrols out this month so motorists need to drive using caution,” he said.

Losagio said he was pleased with the turnout of Allentown Police Department officers who worked with Salisbury officers during the detail.

“We would like to have more joint details on roadways that are spilt by the township and the Allentown City border in the future,” Losagio said.

During the detail, Losagio monitored an ENRADD electronic speed monitoring device set along the roadway, and radioed violations to both Salisbury and Allentown Police officers. The detail was enabled by a Pennsylvania Department of Transportation aggressive driving grant that paid for overtime for officers who volunteered for the detail so no officers were diverted from regular patrol duties.