North Dakota State Patrol using road flares to slow traffic

FARGO (KVRR-KFGO) – The North Dakota State Patrol has begun to use road flares at certain crash scenes to encourage approaching traffic to move over.  

Capt. Bryan Niewind, who commands the patrol’s southeast region, said the flares emit a red flame and sparks and they’re effective.

“They are, we’ve deployed them, they do have a time limit on them so when they burn out we have to redeploy another road flare and we’ve had cases where our troopers have put road flares out, people move over, slow down for those road flares, when they go out people start blowing by us going too fast, obviously not moving over,” Niewind said.

“We have our lights on but those road flares are really making a big, it’s a game changer for us, it’s making people move over, Niewind concluded.

Niewind said troopers also carry electronic flares called “busy flares,” but they don’t seem to work nearly as well and can be affected by the cold.  

He’s been with the patrol for 23 years and he believes this is the first time that flares have been used on North Dakota highways.  Last winter, five North Dakota patrol units were totaled in collisions in the eastern part of the state.

The Minnesota State Patrol has deployed road flares at crash sites for several years.