GSP Post 52 Finishes Busy First Year, Sets Goals for 2016

An Elbert County man is listed as the only fatality over the Christmas/New Year’s holiday weekend in the Post 52 Georgia State Patrol area.

Over the Christmas holiday period which began on Thursday December 24 at 6p and ended Sunday, December 28 at midnight, the Georgia State Patrol reported nine fatalities on State roadways overall.

GSP Post 52 Commander Al Whitworth says the fatality happened on Saturday, December 27th.

“Over Christmas we did have one fatality on Bowman Highway where a vehicle lost control in the fog and struck a tree,” Whitworth said. “Unfortunately, the vehicle caught fire and driver was deceased there at the scene.”

The driver’s name was not released.

Whitworth said that was the first fatality in the Post 52 area in the past few months.

“I think the presence of law enforcement, between the State Patrol and the Counties which are also doing a great job, are a big deterrent in this area,” he said.

Post 52 has now been open exactly one year and Whitworth says they have stayed busy.

“With the new office and having the manpower that we have here at this Post with 14 officers, gives us the ability to really show a presence. Over the year, this post worked 1,700 crashes and there were 15 fatalities for the year,” Whitworth said. “But the thing I’m most proud of is that there seems to be a reduction in fatalities in 2015 from 2014.”

According to the Commander, while fatalities are down, DUI’s and impaired driving remains a concern.

He says in 2015, the number of DUI and impaired driving cases increased with many of those drivers caught driving impaired on the Interstate.

“The biggest problem we’re seeing right now is that a lot of our fatalities are single driver fatalities,” he said. “People are just losing control and that’s all related to distracted driving.”

And as the Post enters 2016, Whitworth said his officers will be focusing more on cracking down on distracted drivers.

“We’re getting a lot of following-too-close accidents where they’re rear-ended,” Whitworth said. “A lot of that is directly related to cellphones. We’re making a concious effort to stop people from texting and driving. We try to focus on reaction times say at stop lights and weaving. It used to be weaving in the road meant an impaired driving, but now it’s more related to cellphone use.”

Whitworth said it is hard for an officer to tell if someone is texting while driving or just using their phone.

Under Georgia law, texting while driving is against the law for teens, but not for adults.