Operation Southern Shield Kicks off This Week

Yesterday kicked off Operation Southern Shield, week-long speed prevention campaign, in Georgia and surrounding states.

The multi-state effort to prevent speeding will be underway all week across Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee.

Director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety Harris Blackwood said this is the first time Georgia has done a multi-state operation on speed enforcement.

According to Blackwood, there was a recent increase in speed related fatalities.

“The whole idea is to get people to slow down,” said Blackwood. “We saw an increase of 50 percent from 2013-2015 in speed related fatalities and that’s often speed associated with other things such as speed and alcohol and speed and distraction, but speed is the underlying factor and we want people to obey the speed limit.”

Blackwood said that law enforcement across Georgia will be keeping a careful eye out for speeding this week in particular, especially at the end of summer.

“We believe that highway safety doesn’t stop at the city limits, the county line or even the state line,” said Blackwood. “Our partners in our neighboring states are just as committed as we are to keep this number down.  We’re in the final weeks of vacation, people want to get there in a hurry, we want them to get there safely. 15 miles over the speed  limit doesn’t get you there that much faster. Officers will be stopping people. Some people will get a warning, but some will get a ticket.”

Blackwood added that this operation is meant to influence behavior of drivers.

On certain days this week, law enforcement will be focusing on different major interstate highways.

Both the Stephens County Sheriff’s Office and Toccoa Police Department will be participating in the operation. Sheriff Randy Shirley said his deputies will be concentrating on the bypass.

Operation Southern Shield will be in effect until Sunday.

For more information, visit www.gahighwaysafety.org.