Cullman’s rise as a business center in the region brings plenty of money into the community, but traffic accidents are also trending up with the growth.

The Cullman Police Department has specially trained officers who are part of a traffic homicide investigation team, but everyone at the department is available for duty along the busy thoroughfares.

Lt. Jeff Warnke, a veteran officer with accelerated training in traffic, said the officers have worked about 1,000 accidents this year. 

The culprit in the majority of the accidents has been impatience and speed, he added.

“We’re working accidents where people are running red lights and stop signs, or they’ve been following too closely behind another vehicle,” Warnke said. “I would encourage people to slow down and be patient. We’re not a small, sleepy town anymore. The city is growing and a lot of people come here every day to shop or for services and it’s congested much of the time.”

The majority of the accidents are along Alabama 157, U.S. 31 and U.S. 278, the three main thoroughfares in Cullman. But officers are also concerned about other roads, including neighborhoods where children play and many adults walk.

“We’ve been having discussions among our officers about the problems we are seeing each day,” Warnke said. “We may see a traffic initiative in the next year, but anything we come forward with will be reported to the public before we move forward.”

Distracted driving, from using cell phones to eating and other activities behind the wheel, are contributing to accidents, too. Alcohol or substance consumption plays a role in some, such as Tuesday night’s wreck on Alabama 157, but those cases are low on the cause of accidents, Warnke said.

Noting that motorists should be slowing down on U.S. 31 when they come into the city, Warnke said too many drivers are ignoring the speed limit changes.

“For example, when you get to the Ag Center and you are driving south on 31, the speed limit comes down to 50 and by the time you reach the Cullman Shopping Center, it’s 30. And it remains 30 until you get to a point past the businesses,” Warnke said.

To maintain safety on the roads, Warnke said the rule of driving is to stay two car lengths behind the next vehicle for every 10 miles per hour on the speedometer.

“At 30 miles per hour, you should be six car lengths behind,” Warnke said. “This gives you time to react or adjust if something happens in front of you. But too many people are in a hurry and not following the rules of safe driving, and we’re seeing the results of that in the number of accidents. A thousand accidents is a lot for this size city.”

The holiday period has police and the Cullman County Sheriff’s Office using more officers on traffic patrol.