When you have a wreck at (speeds upwards of 100 miles per hour) the results can be devastating.”

Summerdale Police Chief James "Jimmy" Davis

SUMMERDALE, Alabama — As the Christmas approaches, many people are making their plans to travel over the holiday weekend.

For the motorists who are planning to drive along the main corridors heading to the Gulf beaches, law enforcement would like to send them a message, “slow down and stay calm.”

For Summerdale Police Chief James “Jimmy” Davis, whose three main arteries – Alabama 59, the Baldwin Beach Express and County Road 32, the main connection between the other two – all remain in a constant 55-mile-per-hour speed zone, it’s more of a plea that a message.

“There’s nowhere else in Baldwin County that the speed limit remains the same all the way through town,” Davis said. “I think you’d be hard pressed to find anywhere in the state like that.”

On average, Davis said, the town writes about 300 traffic tickets per month, the vast majority of those tickets are written in the 55-mile-per-hour speed zones and average almost 20 miles-per-hour over the speed limit, some have been in excess of 100 miles per hour.

“When you have a wreck at those speeds, the results can be devastating,” he said.

Davis, who took the job as police chief in 2013, is a law enforcement veteran, including working vehicular death cases while an officer with the city of Fairhope.

“I’ve worked some bad wrecks, but I’ve never seen any as horrendous as when I came here,” he said.

His first day on the job, he says, he stopped two people on his way in to work who were traveling well in excess of the speed limit.

“I asked them both why they were going so fast and they both said they were in a hurry to get to the beach,” he said. “There has to be a way to get people to slow down or it’s only going to get worse.”

So far in 2016, the Summerdale Police Department has worked or assisted in more than 100 vehicular accidents, of those, five have been confirmed fatalities with two more where the victims received life-threatening injuries and remain hospitalized.

Another eight accidents included victims with incapacitating injuries, along with 11 more than included possible injuries, including those that the officer working the accident thought the victim was injured, but the victim either refused treatment at the scene or received treatment at a later date.

Also, if the victim is transported out of state, the extent of the victims injuries are unknown unless there is a grand jury hearing in the case, in which the hospital records will be subpoenaed.

There were a total of 23 accidents where it is unknown whether or not there was an injury involved, Davis said.

“We have accidents where those involved either fled the scene or simply did not report the accident,” Davis said. Only about half of the accidents reported, 52 so far in 2016, did not involve injuries, Davis said.

The majority of accidents reported, about 53 percent, occur during a three-day period from Thursday (17 percent) to Saturday (16 percent) with the majority of accidents, about 20 percent occurring on Friday, Davis said.

The vast majority of accidents, about 80 percent, occur in the 55-mile-per-hour speed zones. About 60 percent of accidents occur at intersections while 40 percent are not at an intersection.

“One of our biggest concerns are in areas like Jet Pep, where people stop and get gas, then are trying to cross four lanes of traffic,” he said.

And it’s not just speed that concerns Davis and his officers, it’s drivers who are distracted, running red lights and not following at a safe distance, among others that cause concern.

One thing he and his officers have concentrated on are infractions involving school buses, he said.

“Particularly on Highway 59 where there are four lanes of traffic, we are asking drivers to pay attention at school bus stops,” he said. “When a bus stops on Highway 59, all four lanes of traffic must stop, but again, people headed toward the beach don’t want to stop for anything. The last thing we want to do is to work an accident where the fatalities are children and we are going to do whatever is necessary to ensure that doesn’t happen.”

The small town has long had the reputation of a speed trap and people think a lot of money is generated through traffic citations, but Davis said that is far from the case.

“We don’t get to keep a lot of that money,” he said. “Most of it is designated to go back into the court system.”

In fact, town clerk Tiffany Lynn says that the police department is not considered to be a source of revenue for the town at all.

The town’s total revenue for 2016-17 is projected at just under $3.4 million. As a budget item, citations and court fees account for about $980,000, but only a small fraction of that is actually designated for the town’s General Fund revenue.

For an average speeding ticket, costing $224, only $37 of that is designated for the town’s General Fund, a $15 Municipal General Fund fee, a $20 fine and a $2 Municipal Training Fund fee, all mandated by the state. Another $67.50, including $57.50 Corrections Fund fee and a $10 Municipal Judicial Administration Fund Traffic fee, are designated as court fees.

The rest is divided into designated funds for the state, county and Circuit Court.

For Davis, additional traffic lights have helped, including one at the intersection of County Road 32 and the Baldwin Beach Express.

“We are definitely seeing fewer fatalities there since the light was installed,” he said, “and I want to take the opportunity to thank (County Engineer) Cal Markert and the Baldwin County Commission for helping us get a light there.”

Davis is currently petitioning the state to get a traffic light placed at Alabama 59 at the Jet Pep convenience store, where a lot of accidents have occurred.

“Right now, the Department of Transportation is telling us that there is not enough traffic there to warrant the state paying for the light,” he said. “Which leaves us having to pay for it locally.”

Davis said he welcomes public input and the police department hosts a Coffee With A Cop event beginning at 9 a.m. the first Wednesday of every month. Anyone wishing to contact him personally can call him at 251-989-7777.

“I wish I had the answers for everything, but I don’t,” he said. “This is a great town and everyone here is always willing to help. I know together we can solve this issue.”