Summer of 2021 is here and there are way more people on the roads around western New York than last year. State police local police and the Erie County sheriffs were busy over the Fourth of July weekend. Not only did Police have their hands full trying to track down firework complaints, but they were busy on the roads looking for people who were either speeding or in violation of seat-belt laws or driving while impaired.

According to statistics provided by the New York State police, over 2000 more tickets were handed out over the holiday weekend to start the month than last year.

In the Western New York Region, there were 1160 tickets issued between July 2nd and July 5th. Overall, there were 10,238 tickets handed out statewide.

I have noticed in the afternoons when we are driving around getting chores done or running errands, there are way more people joining us on the roads. It is bittersweet because I remember last year driving around thinking how easy it was to get into parking lots and travel around on some of the major routes like Transit Road or Niagara Falls Blvd. now that the COVID-19 restrictions have eased back it’s great to see businesses being supported and people back to work. But it was nice to drive around with less traffic for a while.

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