Florida Highway Patrol kicks off 'Operation Southern Slow Down'

TAMPA - The Florida Highway Patrol is hosting "Operation Southern Slow Down" to raise awareness about speeding and traffic law enforcement this week.

The campaign is a week long and will have law enforcement out in larger numbers to prevent speeding and aggressive driving.

"Our fatalities have been going down, and our serious injury crashes have been going down. We just ask everybody to make sure just to add that if you see something, you see a crazy aggressive driver, you can call "star-fhp", star 347 on your cellphone,"  FHP Troop C commander major Richard Benton said during a press conference.

According to the FHP, 12% of Florida traffic deaths involved speeding last year. Law enforcement is asking drivers to wear their seat belt and to be patient with other motorists on the road.

"If we could get just people to do three things, obey the speed limit, put the phone down, and stop before making a right turn, I think we can probably knock down the fatalities and traffic by a significant percent," Hillsborough County Sheriff's Office Colonel Robert Ura said.

This campaign started back in 2017 and is happening in the states of Florida, Georgia, Alabama, South Carolina and Tennessee.