COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department is participating in an aggressive driving emphasis patrol sponsored by the state.

Through April 30, county deputies will be conducting emphasis traffic patrols at various locations around the county, focusing on aggressive drivers.

They primarily will be looking for speeders to help reduce the number of injury crashes, the department announced in a press release.

Examples of driving patterns associated with aggressive driving include speeding, failing to signal, tailgating, cutting in and out of traffic, failing to yield to merging traffic, stop-sign violations, and disregarding signals and other signs.

Nationwide, speeding was a contributing factor in more than a third of all fatal crashes and more than 13,000 lives were lost in such crashes, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

Over the three years, 2008 through 2010, 32 percent of all fatalities and 21 percent of all serious injuries resulted from speed-related crashes.

Those crashes are more likely to occur on rural roadways. Over the last three years, 81 percent of the fatal speed-related crashes occurred on rural roadways.

Speed was a factor in 36 percent of all aggressive driving crashes, but was a factor in 72 percent of the fatal aggressive driving crashes.

Speeding is an aggressive driving behavior that is consistently a contributing factor in more than one third of all fatal crashes across the state, according to state highway safety statistics.

The goal of the sheriff's department's participation is to support the statewide highway safety goal of reducing motor vehicle related deaths and serious injuries by increasing the awareness of aggressive driving habits.