Today, the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) announced life-saving news for the Atlanta area: A 3-day roll-out of the high-visibility Thunder Taskforce is planned to help cops crack down on aggressive drivers around Atlanta and surrounding communities. The Thunder Taskforce
is a specialized traffic enforcement unit designed to help Georgia cities combat abnormally high occurrences of traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities
on local high-traffic corridors.

"The taskforce's goal in Atlanta will be to intercept high-risk drivers before they turn that risk into reality," said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood. "

The Thunder Taskforce rolled into Atlanta on Thursday, November 17th at 3:30PM for a kickoff news conference at the Atlanta Police Academy gymnasium on Southside Industrial Boulevard.

The Thunder mission is to detect Georgia's high-crash corridors and reduce mounting highway deaths and serious injuries by introducing a high visibility law enforcement presence to help stabilize the extreme and illegal driving behaviors of careless motorists who cause those crashes. The taskforce's goal in Atlanta will be to show a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and injuries during the coming 3-day initiative.

The Thunder strategy assigns concentrated patrols to state routes, rural roads and interstate highways on alternating schedules for each day of the crackdown. Thunder officers will conduct safetybelt and sobriety roadchecks and speed patrols while collecting enforcement data to document
their life-saving progress.

"You never know when and you never know where you'll see blue lights in your rear view mirror," said Director Blackwood. "That's part of the Thunder strategy too. After the Thunder crackdown, crash locations with high injury and fatality rates will continue to be targeted with concentrated patrols and roadchecks."

Operation Thunder has a history of reducing highways deaths since the highway safety project's inception in 2007. Each time it's launched, the GOHS Thunder Taskforce deploys a combined safetybelt, speed and DUI mobilization with local Traffic Enforcement Units. H.E.A.T. officers are certified
as field sobriety or drug recognition experts, with required training in advanced traffic law, DUI Breathalyzer and radar equipment, emergency vehicle operation and pursuit intervention.

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