There's something about summer that just makes a driver's right foot get heavy.
To combat speeding and aggressive driving, the Georgia Governor's Highway Safety Office will kick off its annual "100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T." campaign on Memorial Day.
The multiagency Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic campaign began in 2004 as a way to reduce fatal crashes, according to a news release.
"Temperatures won't be the only thing making the heat rise this summer," said Harris Blackwood, the director of the Governor's Office of Highway Safety. "From drunk drivers to aggressive speeders, all unsafe motorists will be feeling the H.E.A.T."
Local law enforcement and the Georgia State Patrol will be taking part in the campaign. The goals are to reduce the number of impaired-driving crashes by 10 percent, and to reduce speeding and aggressive driving, according to the Governor's Highway Safety Office website.
The release said Georgia had 895 speed-related crashes in 2011, but the number zoomed to 1,115 in 2012.
The top three causes of fatal crashes in Georgia are speed, drunken driving and not using safety belts, Blackwood said in the release.
The H.E.A.T. program has some overlap with another annual push, the Click It or Ticket seat belt campaign, which is May 20-June 2.
Copyright 2013 - Chattanooga Times Free Press, Tenn.
McClatchy-Tribune News Service
