Starting January 27th, the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) announced life-saving news for Hall County: A ninety-day roll-out of the high-visibility THUNDER TASKFORCE is planned to help cops crack down on aggressive drivers around the City of Gainesville and surrounding communities. The GOHS THUNDER TASKFORCE is a specialized traffic enforcement unit designed to help Georgia cities combat their abnormally high occurrences of traffic crashes, injuries and fatalities on local high-traffic corridors.
“The THUNDER TASKFORCE goal in Gainesville and Hall County will be tointercept high-risk drivers here before they become involved in injury and fatality crashes,” said newly appointed Director Harris Blackwood of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety. “And as the first and only warning to Hall County speeders and drunk drivers, a 75-car police motorcade on I-985 will mark the launch of Operation THUNDER,” said Blackwood. The THUNDER TASKFORCE blue light motorcade will roll into Gainesville on Thursday, January 27th, at 330PM after kicking off a news conference on the Elachee Road Bridge over I-985.
GOHS crash data shows that by August of 2010, Hall County experienced 20 traffic deaths, already exceeding the previous mid-year fatality count by five. At that rate, Hall County is projected to experience another 5 road fatalities by the time 2010’s final crash stats are tabulated. These deadly projections prompted Gainesville and Hall County law enforcement to plan with the Governor's Office of Highway Safety for TASKFORCE traffic enforcement support before the end of the year.
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 goal in Gainesville and Hall County will be to show a significant reduction in traffic fatalities and injuries during the coming 90-day initiative.
The THUNDER strategy assigns concentrated patrols to state routes, rural roads and interstate highways on alternating schedules during the 90-day crackdown. TASKFORCE officers conduct day-and-night 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, the Hall County Sheriff and Gainesville Police will continue to target predetermined high-injury and high-fatality crash locations with a strategy of concentrated patrols and roadchecks.
OPERATION THUNDER has a history of reducing highways deaths around population centers like Hall County since the highway safety project inception in 2007. Each time it’s launched, the GOHS THUNDER TASKFORCEdeploys a combined safetybelt, speed and DUI mobilization with local Traffic Enforcement Units. This combinedTHUNDER TASKFORCEroster includes:
· Hall County Sheriff’s Deputies and Gainesville Police.
· Local agencies will be supported by a force-multiplier of law enforcement agencies from the GOHS Northeast Traffic Enforcement Network (NETEN), which includes Banks, Dawson, Forsyth, Franklin, Habersham, Hall, Hart, Jackson, Rabun, Stephens and White counties.
· Georgia State Patrol will dispatch the Nighthawk DUI Taskforce, state enforcement officers from the Region 2 DPS Motor Carrier Compliance Division in Lavonia, and Troop B Troopers from Post 6 Gainesville, Post 7 Toccoa, Post 27 Blue Ridge, Post 32 Athens and Post 37 Cumming..
· And a specially-qualified contingent of police and county sheriff’s H.E.A.T.Units.
H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic. GOHS provides grant funding for traffic enforcement officers from 21 H.E.A.T. Units around the state to increase safety belt use and reduce speeding and impaired driving crashes. The TASKFORCE 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. “High-visibility H.E.A.T. patrols intercepting high-risk drivers on the local roads we know to be high-crash corridors are part of every successful THUNDER operation,” said GOHS Director Harris Blackwood.
TASKFORCE Teams will receive logistical support from the NETEN regional GOHS Traffic Enforcement Network from January through March 2011. NETEN will provide portable “BAT”-Trailers, field-equipped with reporting stations, night-operations generators with street lighting-kits, Intoxilyzers and holding cells to conduct THUNDER seatbelt and sobriety roadchecks during the mobilization.
On Thursday, January 27th at 330PM, the GOHS THUNDER TASKFORCE rolls into Hall County on
I-985. Together, the Governor's Office of Highway Safety, the Hall County Sheriff’s Office and Gainesville Police will step-up enforcement to drive-down highway deaths in northeast Georgia.
