"100 Days of Summer Heat" in Georgia: Taming Georgia's High-Speed Driving Culture

Traffic Safety

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“100 Days of Summer Heat” in Georgia: Taming Georgia’s High-Speed Driving Culture

Bob Dallas, Director, Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, and Ricky H. Rich, Director of Special Operations, Georgia Governor's Office of Highway Safety, Atlanta, Georgia

During fall 2003 the Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported average interstate speeds in Georgia as the highest recorded in the country. Eighty-five miles per hour in a 55-mile-per-hour zone was the norm, not the exception. Behind the scenes in state highway safety, Georgia’s most current crash data verified the phenomenon: speed was exceeding impaired drivers as a factor in crash deaths.