COEUR d'ALENE - The Kootenai County Sheriff's Department will be participating in an aggressive driving emphasis patrol sponsored by the Idaho Transportation Department, Office of Highway Operations and Safety.

From Friday until April 14, deputies will be conducting emphasis traffic patrols at various locations around the county, focusing on aggressive drivers, the sheriff's department said in a news release Wednesday.

Patrol Sgt. Kevin Smart said they'll primarily be looking for speeding violations, to help reduce the number of injury crashes in the county.

Examples of driving patterns associated with aggressive driving include speeding, failing to signal, tailgating, cutting in and out of traffic, failing to yield and to merge in 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.

From 2009 through 2011, there have been 228 fatal vehicle crashes and 1,434 serious injury crashes involving aggressive-driving patterns.

Speed-related crashes are more likely to occur on rural roadways, Smart said.

According to the Traffic Safety Administration, 81 percent of the fatal speed-related crashes occurred on rural roadways during the past three years. 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 ITD highway safety statistics.

Smart said the goal of the sheriff's department's participation in the mobilization 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.