Metro Atlanta speed crackdown today

By Mashaun D. Simon

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Motorists beware. The Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) is launching another all-day speed enforcement crackdown today.

Traffic enforcement units from DeKalb County PD, Cobb County PD, College Park PD, East Point PD, Union City PD, Atlanta Police Department are expected to run concentrated patrols on I-285, I-85, I-75 and I-20.

They will be on the lookout for motorists, who drive at illegal speeds, tailgate, drive aggressively, and ignore Georgia’s ‘Move Over Law.’ The Move-Over Law was designed to protect law enforcement officers conducting traffic stops and other first responders performing emergency tasks alongside highways with their emergency lights activated.

“Our highway safety data shows speed, impaired driving, and unbuckled drivers and passengers are still the top three causes of fatality crashes, not only during the summer holidays, but throughout the year,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas.

As part of Georgia’s “100 Days of Summer H.E.AT.” this is the sixth in a series of crackdowns that have taken place this summer, according to Governor Office officials. The H.E.A.T. campaign, which stands for “Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic,” is a multi-jurisdictional highway safety enforcement strategy designed to reduce high-fatality crash-counts during the potentially deadly summer holiday driving period from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July and Labor Day holidays, said GOHS officials in a statement.

While there is not a current breakdown on the success of the enforcement activity of this summer, agencies intend to have a report of their individual totals on line by the end of the summer.

Since the crackdowns began, though, Union City police are seeing a change. According to Union City PD PIO George Louth, the violations have not been like they have seen in the past.

“From my own personal observation and from talking to some other officers, we have seen a drop by 25 percent in the number of violations,” said Louth. “And of late, we have seen a drop in speed from the m id 90s to anywhere between the low and mid 80s.”

Summer 2009 marks the sixth consecutive year of a concentrated crackdown.