Florida Highway Patrol kicked off Operation Southern Slow Down. It’s part of a regionwide effort to reduce the number of speeders, aggressive drivers and crashes on Florida roads and highways.
Statistics from Florida Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles show there have been more than 175,000 crashes on Florida roads in the first half of 2024. More than 1,400 people died because of those crashes.
Local law enforcement agencies from Marco Island to Bradenton joined together for a joint news conference in Fort Myers on Monday to let drivers know more patrols will be on the road.
The message to drivers: slow down, be patient, and buckle-up.
Lieutenant Greg Bueno from the Florida Highway Patrol said drivers need to be considerate of others.
“Our roads are public roads shared by all of our families, that’s all of us. We have to have that mutual respect amongst all of us, so we don’t hurt one another,” he said.
Operation Southern Slow Down runs from Monday, July 15 through Saturday, July 20.
But Lieutenant Bueno said making sure Southwest Floridians are safe on the roads is a year-round challenge.
“Now, that doesn’t mean that on July 21 this all stops," he cautioned. "Traffic safety is important to every single agency back here. We all share these same public roads we all know the importance of making sure motorists abide by the speed limit, putting their phones down, wearing their seatbelts, driving sober. All those little things area big things because that’s how we keep each other safe."
Florida joins Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina and Tennessee in the operation. The aim of the campaign is to reduce the number of crashes and traffic fatalities to zero.
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