BULLOCH COUNTY “THUNDER TASKFORCE” UPDATE:
LIFESAVING INITIATIVE HITS HALF-WAY POINT
More Than 500 Un-Buckled Drivers Ticketed In Three Waves
(STATESBORO-BULLOCH HIGH-CRASH CORRIDOR)
ROLLING THUNDER operations in Bulloch County and the City of Statesboro have officially passed the halfway point in this life-saving ninety-day traffic safety initiative. Enforcement officers here wrote 480 tickets to drivers who didn’t wear seatbelts and another 39 citations to careless parents who didn’t buckle-up their kids in child safety seats. Officers issued a hundred more warning citations as legal reminders for drivers to “Click It Or Ticket”.
“That’s more than 600 potential crash victims who get a second chance to save the lives of those they love by simply buckling a safetybelt,” said Director Bob Dallas of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS). “And that means 600 Bulloch County families who will double their chances of surviving a highway tragedy.”
GOHS crash data shows unbuckled drivers and passengers, along with speed, and DUI have all been deadly crash factors in Statesboro and Bulloch County. Bulloch County had 14 crash fatalities during the first nine months of 2008 and only three of those crash victims were found wearing safetybelts.
“So the enforcement stats from these first three waves of ROLLING THUNDER nowshow this operationis livingup to its zero tolerance reputation with high-risk drivers,” said Georgia State Patrol Senior Trooper Jim Brown. Trooper Brown is Field Coordinator for the GOHS THUNDER initiative.
“The THUNDER Challenge here is the abnormally high rate of traffic crashes and injuries and fatalities for a county and community of this size,” said Senior Trooper Brown. “Our operations model calls for officers to spot the unsafe drivers that make this area a high-crash corridor. So we’ll maintain this high visibility law enforcement presence for three more waves,” said Senior Trooper Brown.
THUNDER patrols are keeping Statesboro neighborhood roads safe by catching impaired motorists and high risk drivers here too:
- So far, sobriety checkpoints sent 42 drunk drivers to jail.
- Concentrated patrols put the brakes on 245 speeders.
- Roadchecks took 39 uninsured or suspended drivers off Bulloch County roads.
- And in the crime-fighting column, TASKFORCE officers apprehended 9 fugitives while making 18 drug arrests and 7 felony arrests during the first 45 days of THUNDER.
“Once again, it’s clear THUNDER is about raising survival rates, not revenue,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. The highway safety forecast in Statesboro calls for THUNDER.. And Enforcement Wave Number Four is already underway.. Today in Bulloch County. Buckle-Up. Slow Down. Drive Sober.
PHOTOS FROM THE JANUARY 21ST THUNDER PRESS CONFERENCE CAN BE FOUND AT THE WE HUNT AT NIGHT WEBSITE OR AT HTTP://WWW.GAHIGHWAYSAFETY.ORG/ROLLINGTHUNDER/STATES.HTML.....
NEWS COVERAGE FROM REGARDING OPERATION ROLLING THUNDER IN BULLOCH COUNTY
PHOTOS FROM THE MARCH 13, 2009 THUNDER ROADCHECKS...
