The death count on Chatham County highways made it the fifth deadliest place to drive in Georgia last year. It’s only March and highway fatalities in the Savannah Area have already climbed into the double-digits. The Savannah/Chatham Metropolitan Police Department has asked the Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety (GOHS) for enforcement support to help bring down the deadly number of serious injury crashes there.
Beginning Tuesday, April 3, 2007, GOHS and participating law enforcement partners from around the state will launch a new HEAT initiative to combat aggressive, impaired, and speeding drivers whose high risk behaviors behind the wheel threaten the lives of law abiding citizens on Savannah area roadways. GOHS will deploy elements of HEAT Units from across Georgia to work in a coordinated traffic safety crackdown campaign with Savannah area authorities.
The new traffic enforcement unit will be called the GOHS THUNDER TaskForce. Savannah will be its first call-out. Saving lives on Georgia highways will be its everyday mission. All Georgia news media is invited to see the GOHS THUNDER TaskForce roll into Savannah on I-16 next Tuesday afternoon. The TaskForce roll-out will be followed by a news conference and deployment briefing, then DUI roadchecks, concentrated patrols and stepped-up enforcement on Savannah area highways.
