Think you can get away with speeding on Georgia highways? You may want to think twice – at least this week.
Georgia is joining four other Southeastern states for a week-long campaign to get motorist to obey posted speed limits. Under "Operation Southern Shield,” which started Monday, law enforcement agencies in Georgia, Alabama, Florida, South Carolina and Tennessee will step up enforcement of speed limits on interstates, major highways and local roads.
Harris Blackwood, director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, said a steep increase in traffic fatalities inspired the campaign. Preliminary statistics from the Georgia Department of Transportation show 1,561 people died on Georgia roads last year – the second consecutive increase in traffic fatalities after nine years of decline.
"By publicizing this operation now, we want drivers across the southeast to choose on their own to obey the speed limit," Blackwood said in a press release announcing the campaign. "Drivers who follow the law will have nothing to worry about, but those who keep their foot on the accelerator run the risk of getting a ticket."
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