"Operation Southern Slow Down" launches July 18 in five Southeastern states
July 14, 2022
Drivers who feel the need for speed better hit the brakes or be ready to see blue lights in their rear-view mirror during Operation Southern Slow Down. From July 18 – 24, this speed enforcement and education campaign, formerly called Operation Southern Shield, returns in five southeastern states: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee.
“Speeding drivers are almost three times more likely to be involved in fatal or serious-injury crashes,” said Buddy Lewis, Director of the Tennessee Office of Highway Safety. “Speeding increases the risk of losing control of your vehicle and threatens the safety of everyone around you. All we ask is for voluntary compliance to ensure everyone can make it home safely.”
State troopers and local law enforcement officers will conduct concentrated enforcement on interstates and state highways in these five states for the entire week in a team effort to stop the increase in drivers traveling at speeds well above the legal limit.
According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the United States has seen an increase in overall traffic fatalities and speed-related traffic deaths in the last two years. Even though there was a 22 percent decline in total traffic crashes in the United States in 2020 compared to 2019 and an 11 percent decrease in the number miles traveled in the country in 2020 compared to the previous year, the number of persons killed in crashes in the U.S. in 2020 increased by 6.6. percent compared to 2019.
Over a four-year period from 2017 through 2020, Operation Southern Slow Down has seen a two percent reduction in traffic deaths in the five states from the week before to the week of the enforcement and education campaign and a 14 percent reduction in speed-related traffic deaths from the week before to the week of Operation Southern Slow Down.
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