Georgia joins Operation Southern Shield

ATLANTA - A warning for drivers who like to go fast. Operation Southern Shield is now in effect.

Georgia teamed up with Florida, Alabama, Tennessee and South Carolina to crack down on speeders. For the week of July 16 thru July 22, drivers will see more law enforcement on city and county roads as well as the interstates.

"Highway safety doesn't stop at the state line or the county line. We all have the same goal, preventing crashes," said Robert Hydrick with the Governor's Office of Highway Safety.

This is the second year for the operation and statistics show it works.

"They see law enforcement out there and people were slowing down, driving alert, we saw 30 percent drop in traffic fatalities for that week compared to the other three weeks in July of last year," said Hydrick.

Ryan Thompson admits to going 5 or 10 miles over the speed limit. But he said he's been warned by some friends in law enforcement to slow it down.

"They told me, like ‘Hint, hint, be warned, they're out there!’" said Thompson.

Last year 12,500 citations were handed out during Operation Southern Shield. Officers said they're goal is not to write tickets, but to get people to slow down, and potentially develop that into a routine of slowing down, not just for the week, but on a daily basis.