Drivers who feel the need for speed better hit the brakes or be ready to see blue lights in their rear-view mirror during Operation Southern Slow Down. From July 18 – 24, this speed enforcement and education campaign, formerly called Operation Southern Shield, returns in five southeastern states including Tennessee, Alabama, Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina and Moore County Sheriff Department Deputies will be working overtime to participate, according to local officials.

“Speeding drivers are almost three times more likely to be involved in fatal or serious-injury crashes,” said Buddy Lewis, Director of the Tennessee Office of Highway Safety. “Speeding increases the risk of losing control of your vehicle and threatens the safety of everyone around you. All we ask is for voluntary compliance to ensure everyone can make it home safely.”

State troopers and Moore County Sheriff’s Department deputies will conduct concentrated enforcement on interstates and state highways for the entire week in a team effort to stop the increase in drivers traveling at speeds well above the legal limit. Law enforcement agencies in the southeast and across the nation have seen a substantial increase in the number of vehicles traveling at speeds above 100 miles per hour in the last two years.

According to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), the United States has seen an increase in overall traffic fatalities and speed-related traffic deaths in the last two years. Even though there was a 22 percent decline in total traffic crashes in the United States in 2020 compared to 2019 and an 11 percent decrease in the number miles traveled in the country in 2020 compared to the previous year, the number of persons killed in crashes in the U.S. in 2020 increased by 6.6. percent compared to 2019. 

Speed was a factor in 29 percent of total traffic fatalities in the United States in 2020, which is a three percent increase from the previous year. The number of persons killed in crashes involving speeding increased by 17 percent in 2020 compared to 2019.   Almost one out of every three speeding drivers involved in a fatal crash in the United States in 2020 did not have a valid driver’s license at the time of the crash, and 53 percent of speeding drivers who were involved in speeding crashes in the U.S. that year were not wearing seat belts.

Federal highway safety data shows that the youngest drivers on the road are involved in speed-related fatal crashes more than any other age group. Thirty-five percent of male drivers and 18 percent of female drivers in the 15-to-20-year-old age group were involved in fatal crashes nationwide in 2020.

In the southeast, the number of people killed in speed-related crashes in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee increased by 14 percent in 2020 compared to 2019. There were 1,611 persons killed in traffic crashes that involved speeding in these five states in 2020 and 1,418 persons killed in crashes involving speeding the prior year.

Operation Southern Slow Down began in 2017 when the five states in NHTSA’s Region 4 decided to hold a week-long joint speed enforcement and education campaign in the third week of July with the goal of reducing crashes and saving lives.

Over a four-year period from 2017 through 2020, Operation Southern Slow Down has seen a two percent reduction in traffic deaths in the five states from the week before to the week of the enforcement and education campaign and a 14 percent reduction in speed-related traffic deaths from the week before to the week of Operation Southern Slow Down.
 

For more information, visit the Tennessee Traffic Safety office by clicking here. •

{The Lynchburg Times is the only independently owned and operated newspaper in Lynchburg. We cover Metro Moore County government, Jack Daniel’s Distillery, Nearest Green Distillery, Tims Ford State Park, Motlow State Community College, Moore County High School, Moore County Middle School, Lynchburg Elementary, Raider Sports, plus regional and state news.}