Photos and Commentary from the 100 Days of Summer HEAT Press Conference on May 24, 2004

On Monday, May 24th, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety launched the largest enforcement program in Georgia's history with a press conference in Atlanta. Over one hundred law enforcement agents, elected officials, safety advocates, and national highway officials gathered at the new 17th Street bridge to stress the importance of buckling up, slowing down, and not drinking and driving.

Situated amongst the dignitaries were over 1,609 empty white chairs, set up to represent each person who died on Georgia's roads last year. Viewed from above, the chairs served as a stark reminder of why safety education and enforcement is so important on Georgia's roads and highways.

"Every year we lose about the same number of people who died on the Titantic," said Bob Dallas, GOHS Director. "These crashes are predictable, therefore they are preventable."

GOHS Director Bob Dallas also said, “Summer H.E.A.T. will be tougher and last longer than any enforcement campaign ever put on the road by the Governor's Office of Highway Safety.” H.E.A.T. is a multi-jurisdictional traffic law enforcement campaign designed to stretch from Memorial Day through the Fourth of July and on past the September Labor Day Holiday.

H.E.A.T stands for “Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic.” For the first time in more than a decade, officers from more than 500 Georgia police agencies will focus their enforcement efforts primarily on SPEED . The initiative is aimed at reducing the high number of fatality crashes on Georgia's highway systems by targeting aggressive drivers who climb behind the wheel with high-risk driving habits, ticketing speeders and unbuckled drivers, and sending impaired drivers to jail.

All summer long, bad drivers will be stopped at road checks or pulled over by concentrated patrols on interstates, secondary corridors and local highways. “And here's where it really gets hot for all lawbreakers on Georgia highways,” said GOHS Director Dallas. “For those three months of HEAT police will actively search for speeders in passenger cars, eighteen-wheelers and motorcycles. If it runs the roads on wheels and it speeds, there's a ticket waiting for that driver during Summer HEAT .”

Among some of the other dignitaries that made it to the Press Conference were NHTSA Southern Regional Director Terry Schiavone, NHTSA Representative Belinda Jackson, Atlanta Police Chief Richard Pennington, State Representative Jill Chambers, MADD Georgia Executive Director Christopher Noe, and crash survivor Terri Hines who moved the crowd with her story of surviving a crash with her two children because of the use of safety belts. Ms. Hines also delivered her poem "A Question" which she wrote immediately after surviving her car crash:

A Question....Why? As I lie
Broken, scraped, and bruised
How could this be, It can't 
Be Me! Oh Yes, it's just
Been proved.

But wait! I don't drink.
I don't speed.  I try not to 
Break the rules.

Yet there we were 
A frightening blur
It was Horrific, it was harsh,
it was cruel.

An Accident, that car and mine
A mistake I won't forget

But what caught my eyes
And to my surprise

Were my Babies...Our eyes
had met

And then a voice, you made a choice
That saved their life, plus you
Not only Prayed while on my way
But Car Seats and Seat Belts were used.

An Answer...To share with all the world or as many as I can.
Help Save your life or make you 
Think Twice
That's Why.  I take a Stand.


                                  ------Terri Hines