Traffic fatalities and crashes down in 2015

The Williams County Sheriff’s Office is cred­it­ing state grants with help­ing reduce traf­fic fatal­i­ties and alcohol-related crashes in the county. Accord­ing to the lat­est sta­tis­tics, both were down by more than half in the last quar­ter of last year. Sher­iff Steve Towns says the grants help pay over­time for deputies who don’t have a lot of time to do traf­fic stops in their reg­u­lar duties. He said the grants also help younger troop­ers get more expe­ri­ence han­dling traf­fic sit­u­a­tions and drivers.