MANATEE COUNTY – Operation Southern Shield is cracking down on speeding drivers in an effort to save lives.
“Over the past year, we’ve seen a troubling trend of speeding and aggressive driving,” said Florida Highway Patrol Major, Joseph Franza.
The Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of transportation will kick off a week long initiative to crack down on speeding motorists across the sunshine state.
“Crash fatalities increased by more than five and a half percent last year statewide despite a 15 percent decrease in the total number, to put it simple, crashes are becoming more deadly due to these high speeds,” said Major Franza.
The Bradenton Police Department will also join in on the effort, as the city has seen an increase in crashes over the past years
“By utilizing special enforcement efforts throughout this week, our traffic unit has been bolstered, we’ll be using unmarked cars, and we will be out enforcing aggressive driving and speed in full,” said Bradenton Police Department, Capt. Brian Thiers.
FHP’s message to drivers is to slow down, and buckle up.
“The faster you go, the greater chance that something bad is going to happen, the faster you go, the longer it is going to take you to stop your vehicle, the faster you go, the greater probability that there is going to be extensive property damage, severity of injury or unfortunately death,” said Florida Highway Patrol, Lt. Greg Bueno.
Lt. Bueno says every drivers main focus should be on the road
“The thing about it is all of us have a horse in the race, because we all have our families out there so it should be meaningful to all of us, last year in the state of Florida we lost three thousand 2 hundred and 99 lives, that’s horrible, we can do better, but we have to do better collectively,” said Lt. Bueno.
