FHP Cracking Down on Speeding This Week with Operation Southern Shield

FHP Cracking Down on Speeding This Week with Operation Southern Shield

Sarasota and Manatee County Drivers - Be Aware This Week, There Will Be Extra Law Enforcement out, on All Roads - Looking for Speeding and Aggressive Drivers

The effort is all to save lives.

Florida Highway Patrol Major, Joseph Franza, says… “Over the past year, we’ve seen a troubling trend of speeding and aggressive driving".

That is why The Florida Highway Patrol and the Florida Department of transportation have kicked off a week long initiative to crack down on speeding motorists across the sunshine state.

Major Franza says… “Crash fatalities increased by more than five and a half percent last year statewide despite a lot less people on the roads… a, to put it simple, crashes are becoming more deadly due to these high speed".

Local Suncoast Police Department’s have also joined in on the effort. “By utilizing special enforcement efforts and bolstering their traffic units and using more unmarked cars, they will be out enforcing laws against aggressive driving and speeding in full".

FHP’s message to drivers is to slow down, and buckle up. Florida Highway Patrol, Lt. Greg Bueno says...“The faster you go, the greater chance that something bad is going to happen, the faster you go, the longer it is going to take you to stop your vehicle, the faster you go, the greater probability that there is going to be extensive property damage, severity of injury or unfortunately death."

Lt. Bueno says every drivers main focus should be on the road

The thing about it is all of us have a horse in the race, because we all have our families out there so it should be meaningful to all of us, last year in the state of Florida we lost three thousand 2 hundred and 99 lives, that’s horrible, we can do better, but we have to do better collectively," said Lt. Bueno.