Published on Tuesday, November 22, 2005
in the St. Petersburg Times

FHP going all out to stop speeders

Every uniformed Florida Highway Patrol trooper will be on the streets this Thanksgiving holiday on the lookout for aggressive, careless and drunken drivers, and checking to make sure adults are buckled up and children buckled down.

But most of all, they'll be on the lookout for speeders, those driving just 10 to 15 mph over the posted limit.

It's the latest phase of the Highway Patrol's statewide Operation Safe Ride program. This segment is aimed at curbing speeding during the deadliest time of the year: Thanksgiving.

"It's the busiest time of the year," said FHP spokesman Trooper Larry Coggins Jr. "More people travel for this holiday than any other, by air and land. And it's a four-day holiday, so you have an extra day to travel, and unfortunately that gives us more bad stats."

Last Thanksgiving weekend, Coggins said, 55 people died in vehicle crashes in Florida, and two of them died in Pasco County. Of those fatalities, 56 percent were not wearing seat belts and 44 percent were alcohol related.

One factor, though, links them all: speed.

"So we're naturally concentrating on excessive speeding," Coggins said. "But our main goal is that our strong presence so close to Thanksgiving will stay in people's minds, and they'll do the right thing so we don't have any fatal crashes."

"Everyone in uniform will be on the road. We've suspended all office operations, and all of our administrators, investigators, people who normally have a nonpatrol role, will be on the road patrolling."

- TROOPER LARRY COGGINS JR., FHP spokesman

Col. Chris Knight, director of the FHP, said in a prepared statement that this weekend's operation is designed to shatter the "erroneous belief that it's okay to drive 10 to 15 mph over the posted speed limit."

Knight wants drivers to know that speed makes traffic accidents more likely, and more severe.

Which is why the patrol will be out in a very visible show of force. Troopers will be on the road in cruisers, on motorcycles and in unmarked vehicles using radar, the speed-timing device Vascar (vehicle average speed calculator and recorder) and video cameras. They'll be in the air, too, on the lookout for speeders.

"Everyone in uniform will be on the road," Coggins said. "We've suspended all office operations, and all of our administrators, investigators, people who normally have a nonpatrol role, will be on the road patrolling."