By Sean Evans
Published: Jul. 21, 2022 at 4:27 PM EDT
POOLER, Ga. (WTOC) - Operation Southern Slow Down is entering its final days but that doesn’t mean law enforcement agencies are taking it easy on speeders.
Pooler Police, one of the participating agencies in Georgia, is covering stretches of Interstates 95 and 16.
A Pooler Police sergeant said they split their enforcement efforts for the campaign focusing their efforts on I-95 Tuesday this week, and on I-16 Wednesday.
Tuesday’s efforts on I-95 yielded 75 stops, while there were only 25 on I-16 all day Wednesday.
A Pooler Police sergeant gave his thoughts on why that number went down so much on the second day.
“Honestly, I think it’s because they saw us, they knew what was going on. It was posted all over the internet, and they realized it was a reality, and they decided to slow down on their own,” said Sergeant Selton Morrow III.
And that’s exactly the goal of Operation Southern Slow Down, to get drivers to check their speeds, especially in construction zones.
On Chatham County’s busiest thoroughfares, Sgt. Morrow says it wasn’t only out of town drivers they were having to pull over.
“From what I can recall, we got just as many people from Georgia as we did anywhere else. Mostly locals really.”
Speeding violations also varied in severity, according to Morrow.
“Anything from north of 100 miles an hour, down to 10 or 11 over.”
But Sergeant Morrow says this campaign is just one example of the work they do to keep those using the roads and interstates that crisscross their jurisdiction safe.
“There’s nothing different. I mean we basically do the same thing that we do everyday. It’s just that they ask for a specific focus and a crack-down and they ask for specific times. Really we didnt’ do anything different than we do any other day of the week.”
Operation Southern Slow Down, coordinated here in Georgia by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety, wraps up this Sunday.
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