State troopers patrolling the New Jersey Turnpike and Garden State Parkway last month wrote about 50 percent more traffic tickets than they did the previous April.

The tickets are being written in the name of safety — not revenue, according to a State Police spokesman, who added that any increases in summonses are part of an attempt to reduce the number of accidents. Fatal wrecks are down 12 percent this year on all New Jersey highways.

“I wouldn’t say we’re making concerted efforts to write more summonses,” State Police Capt. Gerald Lewis said. “But we absolutely are looking to enforce the motor vehicle laws and those behaviors which are causing these accidents.”

State Police from “Troop D,” which patrols the Turnpike, issued 6,791 total motor vehicle summonses last month, up from the 4,655 summonses issued in April 2009. For the first four months of this year, troopers on the Turnpike issued 24,409 tickets, up more than 20 percent from the 20,274 tickets issued between January and April last year.

State Police from “Troop E,” which patrols the Parkway, issued 5,291 summonses last month, an increase from the 3,283 summonses issued in April 2009.

For the first four months of this year, police on the Parkway issued 19,209 tickets, up more than 10 percent from the 17,320 tickets issued between January and April last year.

Lewis said troopers are doing what they’ve always done — looking out for motorists who are too aggressive, drive too fast, get drunk or fail to keep their vehicles to the right.

A radio spot this week warns that State Police are on the lookout for aggressive drivers.

“You’ll see us out there on New Jersey highways. Where you don’t want to see us is in your rearview mirror,” the commercial reads, as a police siren wails in the background.

Last month, troopers on the Turnpike issued 71 summonses to drunken drivers — more than double the 32 tickets given to drunken drivers in April 2009. There were also more summonses for toll evasion, high occupancy vehicle lane violations and truck parking violations.

But a five-year look back at Turnpike and Parkway statistics shows it is not so much a matter of writing more tickets this year as it was not writing as many last year at this time.

Every year from 2006 to 2008, troopers on the Turnpike wrote between 26,000 and 28,000 tickets for the first four months — until the number of tickets dropped to slightly more than 20,000 for the first four months of last year.

On the Parkway, troopers wrote anywhere from 20,000 and 25,000 tickets for the first four months of those years — until the number dropped to a little more than 17,000 last year.

“It appears that last year was a bit of an anomaly,” Lewis said.

Overall, traffic on the Turnpike was about the same for the first four months of 2009 and 2010, with about 73 million riders for the first four months of each year. On the Parkway, there have been about 6 million fewer riders this year, but that was attributed to the three major storms in February 2010 that left the Parkway resembling a ghost town.

Turnpike Authority spokesman Joe Orlando said police are not writing more tickets as part of a revenue push. He said the money from the tickets goes to the municipalities, and the authority doesn’t get a dime.

“The State Police have a job. They’re out there enforcing,” Orlando said. “The fatals are down, so somebody is doing the right thing out there. Whatever it takes to get people to drive slower and be safer.”

(Source: NJ Star Ledger)