Smyrna police cracking down on aggressive drivers after officer nearly killed in crash

SMYRNA, Ga. — The Selected Traffic Enforcement Program at the Smyrna Police Department is cracking down on aggressive driving, distracted driving, DUI’s and reckless driving.

Police are noticing more drivers on the road now that life is beginning to feel a little more normal without COVID-19 restrictions and they believe that is the reason for the spike in reckless drivers.

“The problem here in Smyrna it seems to be growing expediently with the street racing, the aggressive speeds,” said Sgt. Ryan Hanson who is with the Special Operations Division at the Smyrna Police Department.

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Last week, Sgt. Hanson’s life flashed before his eyes when a driver ignored the move over law and crashed into Sgt. Hanson’s cruiser while he was standing just feet away from it.

“It was frightening. It wasn’t a feeling I’ve had before in this line of work,” said Sgt. Hanson.

Sgt. Hanson says his team is working hard to crack down on drivers who don’t follow the rules of the road.

“We do specified patrols in areas where we notice a lot of collisions or increased speed complaints,” said Sgt. Hanson.

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Sgt. Hanson showed Cobb County Bureau Chief Michele Newell how his team is cracking down during a ride along that highlighted some of the problem areas. The most crash ridden intersection in Smyrna is South Cobb drive and the East West Connector, on average officers see up to 500 hundred crashes.

“The east west connector is known for some pretty bad speeding as well as complaints from residents about late night street racing,” said Sgt. Hanson.

The department is also using new lasers guns that not only track speed, but also spot aggressive drivers.

“We can actually capture a speed, get a photo of the first vehicle and then immediately follow it up with a second shot on the vehicle directly behind them,” said Sgt. Hanson.

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Police are not just writing tickets. They try to help drivers who have a fairly clean records.

“The court will offer them at times the ability to come to our traffic school,” said Sgt. Hanson.

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