100 days of summer heat starts on may 22nd

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) issued this statewide warning to bad drivers: “The countdown is done and the 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T. have officially begun.”

It’s the third consecutive year that waves of law enforcement patrols in 159 counties will be cracking down on the dangerous, aggressive, and high-speed drivers who place hundreds of innocent lives in peril on Georgia highways every summer. Why? Because speed kills.

“Even our every-day drivers are going faster and faster on our southern highways and their peak-speeds are building to deadly-speeds during these summer months,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “So if it runs on wheels and speeds, there’s an officer with a ticket book waiting for those lawbreakers somewhere in Georgia during Summer H.E.A.T.”

The summer-long campaign is designed to make those bad drivers feel the H.E.A.T. on their checkbooks, license points and insurance rates. H.E.A.T. means citations for speeding and aggressive driving.. tickets for failing to buckle-up the kids or wear safety belts.. and jail time for drunk and drugged driving.

H.E.A.T. stands for “Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic.” It’s a multi-jurisdictional traffic law enforcement strategy timed to stretch from the week leading up to Memorial Day through the Fourth of July travel weekend and beyond the Labor Day Holiday.

In 2006, the Summer H.E.A.T. campaign will again kick off one of the longest, toughest, most ambitious highway safety initiatives ever launched in this state. So once again it’s time to buckle-up, secure the kids in their safety seats, drive sober, and obey the speed limits during the summer holiday driving period.

“The message to Georgia’s high-risk drivers is clear,” said GOHS Director Dallas. “Safety belt, DUI, and speed law violations will not be tolerated. Slam the brakes on your high-speed driving habits now, before law enforcement agencies across the state roll-out their full-scale mobilizations for the 100 Days of Summer H.E.AT.”

H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic

Aggressive Driving-Driving behavior that is rude, unsafe, or frightening to other drivers. Georgia law says “a person commits the offense of aggressive driving when (they) operate any motor vehicle with the intent to annoy, harass, molest, intimidate, injure, or obstruct another person..” O.C.G.A. 40-6-397

Aggressive driving can lead to violence or even fatal crashes. Your family, your friends, your children, anyone can become a victim of an aggressive driver, especially if that driver is you.

Some examples of aggressive driving include weaving in-and-out of traffic, cutting-off other drivers or keeping them from changing lanes, yelling or making obscene gestures, running red lights, tailgating, and yes, can include speeding.

did you know this?

Speeding is the aggressive highway behavior engaged in most by drivers.

Speed is involved in more than one-third of the traffic crashes that kill Georgians each year. That’s an average of more than 500 speed-related traffic deaths here every year.

Unsafe or illegal speed is now cited in more Georgia crash deaths than alcohol.

NHTSA Safety Experts estimate that nationally, 31-percent of all fatal crashes involve drivers who were exceeding the speed limits or driving too fast for conditions.

About twenty-percent of the U.S. population resides in the Southeastern United States, however NHTSA data shows a disproportionate twenty-five-percent of the nation’s total crash fatalities occur in the South.

The economic cost to society of speed-related crashes in the U.S. is estimated at $40.4 billion every year.

The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety is trying to change speeding and aggressive driving in Georgia by enforcing a new initiative: The 100 Days of Summer HEAT-- WE’RE SAVING LIVES ONE TICKET AT A TIME.

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