THUNDER TASK FORCE COMES to CENTRAL GEORGIA
State Steps-Up DUI Enforcement To Drive-Down Fatalities
90-DAY CRACKDOWN
TARGETS
HOUSTON COUNTY
DRUNK DRIVERS
ROLLING THUNDER HOUSTON REACHES ITS HALFWAY POINT IN DECEMBER, 2009. VIEW ARTICLES ON THUNDER FROM THE WARNER ROBINS PATRIOT AND THE MACON TELEGRAPH....
Today the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety(GOHS)announced another ninety-day roll-out of the high-visibility ROLLING THUNDER TASK FORCE totarget high-risk drivers in Central Georgia’s Houston County this Fall. The GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE is a specialized traffic enforcement unit designed to help communities on the GOHS “DeadlyDozen List” of high crash traffic corridors combat their abnormally high occurrences of traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities on local highways.
“The TASK FORCE mission is to help reduce those regional highway deaths and serious injuries by altering the illegal driving behaviors of careless motorists through an increased law enforcement presence in Georgia’s high crash corridors,” said Director Bob Dallas at the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. The THUNDER TASKFORCE motorcade will roll into Houston County Friday, November 6 th.
Statistically, stretches of heavily traveled state highways, rural roads, and interstates in Houston County currently meet the THUNDER TASKFORCE definition for ‘high crash corridors’, prompting law enforcement authorities in the region to ask the Governor's Office of Highway Safety to plan for TASKFORCE enforcement support there, starting this Fall.
- GOHS crash data shows Houston County has already experienced eleven fatalities so far in 2009. That exceeds total traffic deaths there last year at 114-percent of their projected year-to-date fatalities.
- Crash data also shows Houston County has experienced an average of 19.3 annual fatalities over the last nine years… That places Houston among the top eleven Georgia counties with the highest percentage of projected fatalities to go beyond predictions.
The THUNDER TASK FORCE goal will be to show a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and injuries in Houston County over the coming three-month period. THUNDER has a history of helping counties on Georgia’s “Deadly Dozen List” since the project’s inception in 2007 when it began combating crash deaths in the Savannah-Chatham Metro Area, followed by lifesaving results in Bartow, Paulding, Barrow and Oconee Counties in 2008, then successfully turning around killer highway statistics in Bulloch County and the City of Statesboro in early 2009 and Glynn and McIntosh counties just this past Summer.
Each time it’s launched, the GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE runs a combined speed and DUI crackdown operation with local Traffic Enforcement Units in the community that requests the rollout. This combined THUNDER TASK FORCE roster includes: Houston County Sheriff’s Deputies and three local Police Departments from the Central Georgia cities of Perry, Centerville, and Warner Robins supported by a force-multiplier of:
- Local law enforcement agencies from the Middle Georgia Traffic Enforcement Network (MGTEN) including Peach, Macon, Houston, Dooly, Pulaski, Crisp, Wilcox, Twiggs, Bibb and Turner Counties.
- Georgia State Troopers dispatched from Troop G and the DPS Motor Carrier Compliance Division..
- Along with a specially-qualified contingent of GOHS H.E.A.T. units from the Walton, Paulding, Douglas, Barrow, and Bibb County Sheriff’s Offices and the Dublin, Winder, and Henry County Police Departments.
H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic. GOHS provides funding for H.E.A.T. traffic enforcement officers in 21 law enforcement agencies around the state to increase safety belt use and reduce speeding and impaired driving crashes. The TASK FORCE H.E.A.T. officers are certified as field sobriety or drug recognition experts, with required training in radar, emergency vehicle operation, pursuit intervention, advanced traffic law, and DUI Breathalyzer equipment operation.
“The Challenge to this THUNDER OPERATION is that Houston County has already suffered three fatalities more than what they by saw this time last year and that represents a 114-percent increase,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “Our enforcement plan includes high-visibility patrols where vigilant officers take high-risk drivers off roads that are spiraling into high-crash corridors.”
TASK FORCE officers conduct day-and-night safetybelt and sobriety roadchecks on local roadways on an ever-changing schedule while collecting enforcement data to document their life-saving progress. The THUNDER strategy applies concentrated patrols on state routes, rural roads, and interstate highways over the three month period.
In between weekly waves of THUNDER operations, Houston C ounty Sheriff’s patrols will continue to target high injury and fatality crash locations with that rotating schedule of concentrated patrols and roadchecks. TASK FORCE Teams will receive logistical support from the MGTEN regional GOHS Traffic Enforcement Network. That will provide portable Blood Alcohol Testing “BAT”-Trailers, field-equipped with reporting stations, Intoxilyzers, night operations generators with street lighting-kits, and holding cells to conduct THUNDER sobriety roadchecks from November 2009 to January 2010.
On Friday, November 6 th at 3pm the GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE rolls into Houston County on I-75. Together, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and the Houston County Sheriff’s Office will step-up enforcement to drive-down highway deaths in Central Georgia. As of November ’09, the Central Georgia travel forecast calls for THUNDER!
For more information about Houston County THUNDER TASKFORCE events and scheduling contact GOHS Law Enforcement Coordinator Powell Harralson at 912-313-1581 or pharrelson@gohs.ga.gov or Captain Roger Hayes, MGTEN Coordinator, Centerville PD at 478-808-3426 or rhayes1@windstream.net .
State Steps-Up DUI Enforcement To Drive-Down Fatalities
90-DAY CRACKDOWN
TARGETS
HOUSTON COUNTY
DRUNK DRIVERS
ROLLING THUNDER HOUSTON REACHES ITS HALFWAY POINT IN DECEMBER, 2009. VIEW ARTICLES ON THUNDER FROM THE WARNER ROBINS PATRIOT AND THE MACON TELEGRAPH....
Today the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety(GOHS)announced another ninety-day roll-out of the high-visibility ROLLING THUNDER TASK FORCE totarget high-risk drivers in Central Georgia’s Houston County this Fall. The GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE is a specialized traffic enforcement unit designed to help communities on the GOHS “DeadlyDozen List” of high crash traffic corridors combat their abnormally high occurrences of traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities on local highways.
“The TASK FORCE mission is to help reduce those regional highway deaths and serious injuries by altering the illegal driving behaviors of careless motorists through an increased law enforcement presence in Georgia’s high crash corridors,” said Director Bob Dallas at the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. The THUNDER TASKFORCE motorcade will roll into Houston County Friday, November 6 th.
Statistically, stretches of heavily traveled state highways, rural roads, and interstates in Houston County currently meet the THUNDER TASKFORCE definition for ‘high crash corridors’, prompting law enforcement authorities in the region to ask the Governor's Office of Highway Safety to plan for TASKFORCE enforcement support there, starting this Fall.
- GOHS crash data shows Houston County has already experienced eleven fatalities so far in 2009. That exceeds total traffic deaths there last year at 114-percent of their projected year-to-date fatalities.
- Crash data also shows Houston County has experienced an average of 19.3 annual fatalities over the last nine years… That places Houston among the top eleven Georgia counties with the highest percentage of projected fatalities to go beyond predictions.
The THUNDER TASK FORCE goal will be to show a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and injuries in Houston County over the coming three-month period. THUNDER has a history of helping counties on Georgia’s “Deadly Dozen List” since the project’s inception in 2007 when it began combating crash deaths in the Savannah-Chatham Metro Area, followed by lifesaving results in Bartow, Paulding, Barrow and Oconee Counties in 2008, then successfully turning around killer highway statistics in Bulloch County and the City of Statesboro in early 2009 and Glynn and McIntosh counties just this past Summer.
Each time it’s launched, the GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE runs a combined speed and DUI crackdown operation with local Traffic Enforcement Units in the community that requests the rollout. This combined THUNDER TASK FORCE roster includes: Houston County Sheriff’s Deputies and three local Police Departments from the Central Georgia cities of Perry, Centerville, and Warner Robins supported by a force-multiplier of:
- Local law enforcement agencies from the Middle Georgia Traffic Enforcement Network (MGTEN) including Peach, Macon, Houston, Dooly, Pulaski, Crisp, Wilcox, Twiggs, Bibb and Turner Counties.
- Georgia State Troopers dispatched from Troop G and the DPS Motor Carrier Compliance Division..
- Along with a specially-qualified contingent of GOHS H.E.A.T. units from the Walton, Paulding, Douglas, Barrow, and Bibb County Sheriff’s Offices and the Dublin, Winder, and Henry County Police Departments.
H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic. GOHS provides funding for H.E.A.T. traffic enforcement officers in 21 law enforcement agencies around the state to increase safety belt use and reduce speeding and impaired driving crashes. The TASK FORCE H.E.A.T. officers are certified as field sobriety or drug recognition experts, with required training in radar, emergency vehicle operation, pursuit intervention, advanced traffic law, and DUI Breathalyzer equipment operation.
“The Challenge to this THUNDER OPERATION is that Houston County has already suffered three fatalities more than what they by saw this time last year and that represents a 114-percent increase,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “Our enforcement plan includes high-visibility patrols where vigilant officers take high-risk drivers off roads that are spiraling into high-crash corridors.”
TASK FORCE officers conduct day-and-night safetybelt and sobriety roadchecks on local roadways on an ever-changing schedule while collecting enforcement data to document their life-saving progress. The THUNDER strategy applies concentrated patrols on state routes, rural roads, and interstate highways over the three month period.
In between weekly waves of THUNDER operations, Houston C ounty Sheriff’s patrols will continue to target high injury and fatality crash locations with that rotating schedule of concentrated patrols and roadchecks. TASK FORCE Teams will receive logistical support from the MGTEN regional GOHS Traffic Enforcement Network. That will provide portable Blood Alcohol Testing “BAT”-Trailers, field-equipped with reporting stations, Intoxilyzers, night operations generators with street lighting-kits, and holding cells to conduct THUNDER sobriety roadchecks from November 2009 to January 2010.
On Friday, November 6 th at 3pm the GOHS THUNDER TASK FORCE rolls into Houston County on I-75. Together, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety and the Houston County Sheriff’s Office will step-up enforcement to drive-down highway deaths in Central Georgia. As of November ’09, the Central Georgia travel forecast calls for THUNDER!
For more information about Houston County THUNDER TASKFORCE events and scheduling contact GOHS Law Enforcement Coordinator Powell Harralson at 912-313-1581 or pharrelson@gohs.ga.gov or Captain Roger Hayes, MGTEN Coordinator, Centerville PD at 478-808-3426 or rhayes1@windstream.net .
