Last month the Winder Police Department was awarded a major safety H.E.A.T. grant totaling $20,200 from the Georgia Governor’s Office of Highway Safety.
H.E.A.T. stands for Highway Enforcement of Aggressive Traffic.
The goal of the H.E.A.T. program is to; reduce impaired driving crashes, reduce excessive speeding, increase safety belt usage and educate the public about traffic safety.
“This H.E.A.T. grant expresses our thanks for joining the GOHS enforcement team and for the dedication and support of the Winder Police Department for their efforts to protect Georgians from speeders and impaired drivers. The chance of a crash being fatal here was almost six times higher for crashes related to alcohol or drugs than crashes not related to driver impairment,” said GOHS Director Bob Dallas. “The mission of the GOHS H.E.A.T. Units is to reduce the motor vehicle crashes, injuries and fatalities through the systematic delivery of effective speed, DUI and aggressive driving countermeasures.”
Safety experts at the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimate that nationally 31 percent of all fatal crashes involve drivers who were exceeding the speed limit or driving too fast for conditions.
Some HEAT units are large enough to be deployed as a single, self-contained enforcement team to conduct sobriety checkpoints and target speeders.
In 2011, Winder Police Department officer Brent Davis will begin his third year as the HEAT officer.
Davis has completed extensive training in the detection of impaired drivers and he continues to put this knowledge to good use to make Barrow County a safer place, officials said.
Sixteen regional traffic enforcement networks across the state are sponsored by the Governor’s Office of Highway Safety to help enforce traffic laws year round in the state of Georgia.
For more information about the HEAT initiative and other campaigns visit GOHS website at www.gahighwaysafety.org.
