Law enforcement agencies crack down on speeding in Operation Southern Slowdown | FULL

Hey, good morning everyone. On behalf of the France family, the entire staff here at Daytona International Speedway and NASCAR, I'd like to welcome you. You know, speed on the track is thrilling and controlled, but speed on public roads is dangerous and unpredictable. Operation Southern Slowdown aims to educate drivers on this critical distinction. When we race, we have numerous safety measures, precise tracks, and trained professionals. However, public roads are not designed for racing. Every driver has a responsibility to their passengers and to others on the road. In NASCAR, safety is paramount on and off the racetrack. Adhering to speed limits can be the difference between life and death. We urge drivers to slow down and follow speed limits. Faster speeds require longer stopping distances, and stopping distances quadruple when you double your speed. We advocate for responsible driving because every life is precious. Today, we emphasize the high speed driving should be left to the professionals on the racetrack. Even Daytona International Speedway has a speed limit. So let's respect the speed limit and make our roads safer. And now it's my privilege to introduce Florida Department of Transportation District 5 Director of Transportation Operations, Jim Strohs. Jim? All right, good morning everyone. I am Jim Strohs, Director of Transportation Operations for Florida Department of Transportation District 5, which serves the Central Florida area, and I'm excited to be here today to kick off Operation Southern Slowdown. It's an annual event that goes much deeper than just our regular traffic safety campaigns. It's a life-saving initiative that brings together law enforcement partners across multiple states in a shared commitment to create safer roads. At the Florida Department of Transportation, safety always has been and always will be our top priority. It's embedded into every decision that we make, and it's seen through our data-driven planning, targeted enforcement, and public awareness efforts. It's also what lies at the core of our ultimate goal, and that's to reach a target of zero fatalities and serious injuries on our roadways. It is an ambitious goal, but well worth it because even one fatality is one too many. In 2024, speeding contributed to 173 fatalities and over 400 serious injuries, and that's 173 preventable deaths due to unsafe decisions that were made behind the wheel. That's why Operation Southern Slowdown is such a critical initiative. It's an opportunity to remind everyone of the risks associated with speeding. Our partnership with law enforcement is built on the foundation of reducing the number of heartbreaking losses in our communities and helping to prevent these types of crashes. But at the core of it all, driver responsibility is what will make the biggest difference. Together, we're encouraging every driver to truly understand the impact of the decisions that they make behind the wheel. Safety on Florida's roads is a shared commitment. Don't sacrifice your safety for speed. Slow down in curves and construction zones, wear your seatbelt, and allow extra time for your trip. These steps will help everyone remain safe. When we take responsibility behind the wheel, we help protect one another and ensure everyone gets home safely. Thank you to everyone here today, to Daytona International Speedway for inviting us here to this beautiful facility where, as Frank said, just a couple hundred feet away, professional drivers go as fast as they can, but even they know the importance of slowing down. And thank you especially to our law enforcement partners and all the agencies that are across the entire southeast for your shared commitment to this campaign. Your efforts are essential in helping us save lives and making our roadways safer for everyone. Now we'll hear from three law enforcement leaders who will share their agency's experiences with speeding. I'd like to welcome Florida Highway Patrol Troop D Commander Major Mark Castleberry. Good morning everyone. I would like to begin by thanking NASCAR and Daytona National Speedway for partnering with us to host today's event. We also appreciate the continued support of the Florida Department of Transportation, our fellow law enforcement agencies, and the members of the media who helped amplify this important safety message. This week marks Operation Southern Slowdown, a coordinated traffic safety campaign bringing together law enforcement officers from Florida, Alabama, Georgia, South Carolina, and Tennessee under the leadership of the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration. Our shared mission is straightforward, to encourage every driver to respect posted speed limits and make safer choices behind the wheel. Throughout the campaign, troopers, deputies, and police officers will be conducting high visibility enforcement on both local roads and major interstates. Their presence is intended to deter dangerous driving behavior and reinforce the fact that roadway safety is a responsibility we all share. The purpose of these efforts is not simply to issue citations, but to prevent crashes and save lives. As speed increases, so does the likelihood that a collision will result in serious injury or death. Drivers who engage in excessive speeding or aggressive driving place not only themselves at risk, but everyone around them. In Florida, motorists traveling 50 miles an hour per hour or more above the posted speed limit may face arrest under the state's super speeder law. In the fourth year, in the first year of this law, excuse me, Central Florida troopers charged 777 super speeder drivers for traveling at speeds of 100 miles per hour or more. Troopers will continue to take appropriate enforcement action against those whose reckless choices endanger others. We encourage every motorist to slow down, remain patient, and set a positive example, especially for young and inexperienced drivers who are developing lifelong habits behind the wheel. The choice we make today can influence their decisions for years to come. Although Operation Southern Slowdown lasts just one week, the Florida Highway Patrol's commitment to protecting the public continues every day of the year. If you observe aggressive or dangerous driving, please report it by calling 9-1-1 or Star FHP, which is star 347. Lives depend on the decisions we make behind the wheel. Make every mile count so that everyone can arrive alive. Thank you. It is now my pleasure to invite Marion County Sheriff Billy Woods to share his agency's Woo! It's exciting to be in this room with a whole pile of motormen. These wings in which I have on my uniform here, I earned them. I spent eight years as a motorman and as a traffic homicide investigator and today is an important day and I'm glad to be here with each and every one of you. You know, speeding, well let me tell you this first, you know, I think Marion finally got it figured out. I know everybody loves traveling on I-75 through Marion County, right? It slows down seems like every minute. That's how we solve the problem with speeding on I-75. We make sure that nobody gets through there doing more than 30 miles per hour. The truth is I appreciate FDOT asking me to be here today. It is great to be partnering and mainly I'm here to make the announcement that Marion County, and no I'm not lost, I do know what county I'm in. I do have Chitwood's permission to be here if anybody's wondering. But I am pleased to announce that Marion will continue to participate in the Operation Southern Slowdown for 2026. Through the week of the 13th through the 18th of this month, we will focus our enforcement efforts on speeding. You know, I was asked to give some numbers, particularly for Marion County. You know, in just in this first half of the year, we've issued just right at 1,500 citations for speeding alone. We have just over 2,700 crashes in the unincorporated area of Marion County. 635 of those involved injuries. 37 fatalities so far. Now when I was a traffic homicide investigator, we were the highest in the state for our size. The city of Ocala in one year had 120 just in the city limits of Ocala itself. Good portion, a good majority of these are due to speed. You know, he talked about speeding on this track. This is where it's legal and the right way to do it. Out here on the streets, it's not. On our local streets, not just our interstates, but our state roads, our county roads, and our local roads. From school zones all the way to I-75. One of the things, actually two things, when I was a traffic homicide investigator that what are the consequences of speeding? Now I can stand up here and tell you how much it'll cost you. I'll tell you how many points it'll put on your license. I can tell you that the judge will take it away or fine you a whole pile of money. But two crashes in particular that I worked. First one actually involved two motorcyclists, two buddies who were done during the night, each split up to go their own directions back home. The first one had a particular intersection on 441. At the end of my investigation, I had him at 148 miles per hour plowed into the side of an SUV. 15 minutes after his crash, his buddy that he had just left on the south end of the city, right at the county line, his buddy rear-ended a motor vehicle at 163 miles per hour. And probably the one that stands out in my mind the most of consequences of speeding was four young adults, just barely 21 and 22 years old, every one of them in the vehicle. The female driver failed to negotiate the curve, the speed in which she was traveling, took on a concrete wall basically is what it was, killed her instantly, car ignited on fire. As far as we can tell, two of the four were alive when the car was burning and they were trapped inside. I had her at 136 when she struck that concrete wall. So if you want to know consequences, it's not necessarily the fines or going to jail, it's lives. And that's what everybody, every viewer on these cameras, on the other side of these cameras, need to know and understand. Consequences, well, you can't get them back. It's plain and simple as that. So I'm going to give a warning to you speeders. Two of my motor men are sitting in this room. We are going to write your ass tickets. It's a plain and simple as that. I was a motor man. And gentlemen and ladies, let's be honest. I earned these damn wings. I will always be a motor man. We'll write these tickets out here. So I will now like to invite Chief Manny Marino from Port Orange Police Department to come forward as we continue this call. Thank you, Sheriff Woods. Good morning, everyone. As you said, my name is Chief Manny Marino of the Port Orange Police Department. I also currently serve as president of the Volusia-Flagler County's Police Chiefs Association. So on behalf of the association, I would like to thank Daytona International Speedway and the Florida Department of Transportation for hosting this morning's Operation Southern Slowdown kickoff. Having worked in law enforcement for over three decades, and particularly as a chief of police, one of the most common complaints and everyone in this room knows is traffic complaints, and in particular speeding, which makes this operation so important because I think the aspects of not only the messaging but the enforcement and education portions of it, and you hear the testimonies from people like Sheriff Woods, really sends that message home. So I think that's why it makes it so important. I do think there's a misconception though that this operation is geared specifically towards Florida's major roadways and highways. Again, as Sheriff Woods said, for us, in particular Port Orange and the cities all across central Florida, the amount of crashes that we see occurring on our local roads, and in particular in and around neighborhood communities, is just astounding for us. That is compounded. You know that speeding becomes even more dangerous this time of year when our young people are out on a summer break from school enjoying themselves. But around every corner, there's kids out on bikes, scooters, or simply playing in our streets. So when you look at some of the data, you know, particularly when it involves pedestrians and bicycles, it's astounding, right? You look at 2,075 pedestrian crashes and 141 pedestrian fatalities in District 5 in 2025. Another 1,930 bicycle crashes and 40 bicycle fatalities in 2025. Those bicycle and pedestrian fatalities combined make up 26% of all traffic fatalities. So again, I implore our drivers to think twice about speeding, and particularly in residential neighborhoods. As you've heard from the others, the fear of unintended outcomes due to a driver's decision to speed becomes even greater when you factor in the fact that speed affects the ability for them to control the vehicle or even stop when they need to. Port Orange Police Department witnessed this firsthand as well. Several years back, two drivers in the early morning hours decided to street race on Don Lawton Avenue, and unfortunately due to speed, one of those drivers lost control, struck a pole, and died right there at the scene. Subsequently, or consequently actually, the other driver was criminally charged in that incident as well. One decision, one act that changed not only their lives forever, but their families and our communities. I think people don't realize that this can happen in a blink of an eye, that you'll be affected forever when it didn't need to happen. So with that said, I thank you and let today's announcement of the beginning of Operation Southern Slowdown serve as fair warning to the people out there that are going to continue to choose, and I say choose, to speed to drive recklessly or aggressively or impaired on Florida's roadways. Local law enforcement from not just Volusia and Flagler counties, but from all of Central Florida will be out there in force. You can see that by the number of men and women that are in this room ready to go out there today and begin this operation. I can tell you that they're going to be out there in force, as you can see, and they're going to be eager and waiting to provide you all the education and enforcement information you need. Unfortunately, as Sheriff Woods said, it'll be in the form probably of citations, if not worse, and going to jail during all of this, which again is simply just not worth it. So I applaud all of you that are actually going to be out there on the ground handling this operation, all of the officers throughout Central Florida for their participation in this event. I wish you all the best. Be safe out there, and you're going to be making everyone who visits this great state of Florida, who lives, works, and plays here, safer for your efforts. So thank you. As we conclude our press conference, I'm going to turn it back over to FDOT District 5 Safety Administration, Safety Administrator Laureen Bobo for final introductions. Thank you again. All right. Good morning again. Thank you very much to our speakers for being here, to the Speedway for hosting us this morning, to the media, thank you so much for being here and getting this really important message out. And then to all the officers in the room, thank you every single day for everything that you do to keep us safe on our roadways. Any agencies that did not get to sign up on this sheet, please come see me following. Media, our speakers will be available for one-on-one interviews in this room directly following the press conference. Officers, once we're done, you're welcome to head back to your communities and continue keeping our roadways safe. And then to everyone, please travel safe. And I know everybody in this room will be going the limit. So thank you very much for being here today.