'Hands Across The Border' Cracks Down On DUI, Speeding

CARTERSVILLE, GA — Law enforcement officials in Georgia, Alabama, Florida and Tennessee have launched the 27th annual Hands Across the Border traffic enforcement campaign. Troopers, officers and deputies will be conducting road checks in their respective jurisdictions over a five-day period leading up to the Memorial Day weekend.

Hands Across the Border began Monday, with road checks near Savannah, followed by stops at the Florida state line near Kingsland and Valdosta, the Alabama state line in Columbus and the Tennessee state line near Ringgold. Police in these states will work together to take down drivers under the influence as well as cite motorists for distracted driving, speeding, not wearing seatbelts and other violations.

“We’ve been doing this for nearly 30 years, and we will continue to work with our neighbors to the north, south and west to help bring down traffic fatalities across the Southeast and to get dangerous drivers off the road,” Governor’s Office of Highway Safety Director Harris Blackwood said. “No matter what uniform they wear, our law enforcement and their peers from neighboring states have the same goals to reduce crashes, injuries and fatalities wherever they can. This is an important effort as we get ready for Memorial Day weekend and the unofficial start of summer.”

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Hands Across the Border began in 1991 as a friendly wager between the Georgia State Patrol and Florida Highway Patrol to see which agency could limit the number of alcohol-related traffic deaths in their state during the Labor Day travel period. Within 10 years, the effort grew to all states bordering Georgia, holding joint road checks at their state lines on the week before Labor Day with the goal of taking impaired drivers off the roads prior to the final summer holiday travel period of the year.

In 2017, the campaign began at the start of summer in order to expand the safety message and to run alongside Georgia’s annual 100 Days of Summer H.E.A.T., or highway enforcement of aggressive traffic. The summer initiative is designed to highlight and enforce Georgia’s traffic laws at a time when so many motorists are hitting the road for travel and summer vacations.

“Above all else, our primary goal is to get dangerous drivers off the road and to reduce traffic fatalities and serious injuries,” GOHS Law Enforcement Director Roger Hayes said. “The southeast has so many great vacation destinations that whether folks are staying in-state, just visiting or passing through on their way to another state, we want them to slow down, buckle up themselves and their children, drive sober and put down the phone.”

GOHS notes campaigns like Hands Across the Border are essential because traffic fatalities around the southeast are still "far too high." In 2017, there were 1,549 traffic deaths in Georgia. That's a slight drop from 1,561 in 2016, GOHS added.

“Hands Across the Border shows all motorists that no matter where they’re from or where they’re going, Georgia and its neighbors care about traffic safety,” Blackwood added. “We’re all fighting the same fight against speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving and being unbelted. It does not matter what side of the state line you’re on. We’re all committed to keeping roads safer this summer.”

Image via Georgia State Patrol