ATLANTA — “Operation Southern Slow Down,” a multi-state speed enforcement and awareness campaign, begins Monday and will run through July 19.
This ninth annual initiative involves law enforcement agencies in Alabama, Florida, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee. It aims to prevent crashes and save lives by addressing speeding and reckless driving during the summer travel season.
“The goal for ‘Operation Southern Slow Down’ is not to write tickets but to get more drivers to see that traveling at slower and safer speeds prevents families and friends from losing loved ones in crashes that are preventable,” said Allen Poole, Director of the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
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“Operation Southern Slow Down” first began in 2017 when regional highway safety leaders sought to reduce crashes and save lives by highlighting the danger speeding poses to all roadway users.
In 2025, the campaign saw more than 490 law enforcement agencies in the five states issue 52,990 citations and warnings for speeding.
The week-long enforcement also resulted in more than 1,440 arrests for driving under the influence, 2,230 warnings and citations for reckless driving and more than 3,000 citations and warnings for violating distracted driving laws.
In Georgia alone, state and local law enforcement made more than 13,290 speeding contacts with drivers during the 2025 “Operation Southern Slow Down” campaign.
“Speed limits are in place to protect everyone traveling on our roads and highways and enforcement of speeding and all traffic laws has proven to save lives in our region and nation,” Poole said.
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More than 230 law enforcement agencies in Georgia also made 501 driving under the influence arrests.
Additionally, they issued more than 1,875 warnings and citations for violating the state’s hands-free law and more than 2,470 citations and warnings for failing to obey Georgia’s seat belt law..
The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reports that almost 30% of the nation’s traffic fatalities in 2024 involved speeding.
Federal crash data in Georgia showed speed was a factor in one out of five fatal traffic crashes in the state between 2020 and 2024.
A Georgia Traffic Safety Fact Sheet from 2023 indicated that more than half, 53%, of the persons killed or seriously injured in multi-vehicle speed-related crashes in the state were not the speeding driver.
Crash data showed 35% of persons killed or seriously hurt were in the other vehicle, 16% were passengers in the speeding driver’s vehicle and 2% were pedestrians or bicyclists.
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