Highway Safety Thunder Task Force targets Albany
File Photo: Carlton Fletcher
From staff reports
ATLANTA — The Governor’s Office of Highway Safety’s GOHS Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic (H.E.A.T.) units, GOHS Traffic Enforcement Networks, and Georgia State Patrol are joining the Albany and Dougherty County police departments for a Thunder Task Force traffic enforcement campaign this weekend in the city of Albany/Dougherty County area.
The Albany Police Department requested GOHS Thunder Task Force to return to the city to help reverse an increase in traffic deaths in the county over the last three years.
According to preliminary traffic data compiled by GOHS, there were 19 persons killed in traffic crashes in Dougherty County in 2021, which is a 46% increase from 2017, when 13 people were killed in traffic crashes in the county. Preliminary crash data from 2022 is still begin gathered, but 20 persons have been reported killed in crashes in Dougherty County in 2022, which is a 100% increase over a five-year period when 10 people died in crashes in Dougherty County in 2018.
“The time has come to reverse the increase in persons being killed in crashes on our roads in the United States and Georgia,” Allen Poole, director of the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety said. “Federal data show traffic enforcement is the most effective way to prevent crashes and deaths on our roads, and the goal in this team effort is to make roads and streets in Albany and across our state safer for everyone to ride, walk and bike.”
The Thunder Task Force Operation begins Thursday when the GOHS Law Enforcement Services Division joins the Albany and Dougherty County police departments and Georgia State Patrol for speed, seat belt, and hands-free law enforcement at various locations around the county.
Local and state law enforcement officers will be joined Friday and Saturday night by GOHS H.E.A.T. teams for impaired driving sobriety checkpoints on major roads around the city of Albany and Dougherty County. Anyone driving in the Albany/Dougherty County area on Friday and Saturday should expect to be stopped at one of these checkpoints.
Drivers will not be allowed to ask for a warning or to phone someone to drive you home if you are caught driving over the legal Blood-Alcohol Concentration level of .08 are higher. All drivers over the limit will be taken to jail.
“The GOHS Thunder Task Force Operations have proven to be very effective in Albany and other local communities around the state in reducing the number of people killed in traffic crashes,” Roger Hayes, the director of GOHS Law Enforcement Services, said. “Law enforcement officers wish they did not have to arrest anyone for driving under the influence of alcohol or drugs, but they know every drunk driver they take off the road is potentially one less family that will lose a loved one to the selfish act of drunk driving. “
After the initial Thunder Task Force Operation this weekend, the GOHS Law Enforcement Services Division will work with local police departments to continue enhanced enforcement of speeding, seat belt, hands-free, and drunk and drugged driving laws over the next few months.
Author
Related Articles
Law requires loaded trucks in city to be secured, covered
The City of Albany requests citizens’ cooperation in ensuring that all trucks and trailers operated by all companies, subcontractors, suppliers and haulers have loads properly secured and covered before traveling on city streets and other public roadways.
More than 1,100 ASU students take part in fifth WellFest
More than 1,100 Albany State University students, faculty, staff, and community members took part in the university’s fifth annual WellFest that transformed the Jones Brothers HPER Complex on ASU’s East Campus into an interactive hub for health, wellness and community engagement.
Maya Henry named Albany Museum of Art curator of African art collection
Originally on a career track to become an attorney, Maya Henry has taken a different path, one bringing the New Jersey native to southwest Georgia. She became the new Curator of African Collections and African Diasporic Art at the Albany Museum of Art on Oct. 13.
