Georgia anti-speeding campaign Tag Archives

Published on: August 13, 2024

Georgia Anti-Speeding Campaign to Prevent Car Accidents

An anti- speeding campaign that aims to tackle speeding across Georgia and several Southern States ends on July 21. These types of campaigns are extremely important in the effort to reduce the number of auto accidents involving catastrophic personal injuries and wrongful deaths.

Operation Southern Slow Down included Georgia as well as a few neighboring states and involved additional enforcement against speeding drivers. The campaign started on July 15, and targeted both speeding as well as aggressive or rash drivers. The aim was to crack down on these drivers and pull them off the roads. This was the eighth such campaign that included Georgia and the other Southern States, and officials believed that this was the right time to remind drivers about the need to drive at safe speeds at all times.

The need to remind drivers of the risks of speeding is especially stronger during summer when there are far more motorists on the road and when everyone is in a hurry to get to their holiday destinations. Speeding is one of the biggest killers on American roads with more than 11,000 car accident wrongful deaths in 2022 directly linked to high speeds. The number of speeding-related car accidents in 2022 was a 25% increase from the numbers in 2018. Georgia continues to grapple with a large number of motorists who drive at high speeds putting themselves and other motorists at risk of serious personal injury or even death. In 2022, approximately 422 car accident wrongful deaths in Georgia were directly linked to speeding motorists. That was a significant 56% increase from the number of speeding-related auto accidents in 2018.

Published on: September 5, 2022

Georgia Cracks Down on Speeding Drivers to Prevent Car Accidents

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

High speeds are a major factor in car accidents in the metro Atlanta region and across Georgia every year. Concerned at the growing number of car wrecks involving speeding drivers, Georgia and a number of Southern states are enforcing speed limits and cracking down on errant drivers.

Operation Southern Slow Down is a multi-state initiative that involves a total of five Southern States including Georgia. The week-long campaign this year will see law enforcement officers in all of these states cracking down on speeding drivers. In the five years that Operation Southern Slow Down has been conducted, Georgia Highway Patrol officers have written down more than 55,000 speeding tickets. Police have also pulled over 3,200 drivers for driving under the influence of alcohol during the week-long enforcement campaign over the past 5 years.

Officers intend to spend a lot of time and attention on speeding drivers in construction work zones. For instance, Interstate 95 and Interstate 16 are currently home to construction zones, and officers will be looking at cracking down on speeding drivers in these areas. Workers in construction zones are always at a high risk of personal injuries in car accidents, and those risks are amplified when there are speeding drivers in these zones. Speed limits are always posted well before the start of a construction work zone and even through the zone. Drivers must lower speeds as soon as they see these signs and stick to the posted speed limits as they drive through the construction zone.

Published on: November 8, 2021

Hundreds of Truck Drivers Cited during Georgia Enforcement Blitz

by Robert N. Katz, Esq.

Commercial delivery trucks have been working overtime to fulfill the large volume of online orders and commercial business. More commercial trucks on the roads usually brings with them more risks of trucking accidents, especially as more drivers take to the roads in the upcoming holiday season. Georgia authorities recently took steps to ensure safe driving practices by commercial truckers to keep everyone on the roads safe.

The SafeDRIVE (Drive Distracted Reckless Impaired Visibility Enforcement) is an initiative by the Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration, and is carried out on a quarterly basis in collaboration with state and local law enforcement partners. In Georgia, the SafeDRIVE enforcement blitz was carried out between October 5 and 7 this year. As part of the Georgia initiative, the Motor Carrier Compliance Division of the Georgia Department of Public Safety conducted enforcement initiatives along popular trucking routes, including I- 75, I -95 and I- 85. More than 400 citations were issued to truck drivers across Georgia as part of a law enforcement initiative in collaboration with the federal administration in order to keep our highways safe and prevent truck accidents.

It was a three-day campaign, and hundreds of truck drivers and their commercial trucks were pulled over during the campaign. The campaign resulted in extensive monitoring of common truck driver errors, including following too closely, distracted driving and driving under the influence of alcohol. As part of the initiative, truck drivers were also cited for rash and aggressive driving and driving beyond the speed limits. These are common trucking driver mistakes that can increase the risk of the truck being involved in an accident that endangers not just the truck driver, but also occupants of passenger vehicles involved in the accident. In any accident involving a large commercial truck and a passenger vehicle, it is the occupants of the smaller vehicle who may be at a higher risk of suffering injuries, and therefore, it is important for law enforcement to conduct such regular enforcement campaigns to weed out bad drivers and keep the highways safer for all.