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Thus far this year, as noted in another article on this topic, a grand total of 5 people have died in traffic accidents in all of Bartow County thus far this year. By my count, that is about 1/month – every one of them a tragedy, yes, but far better than most years. We do not hear how many of them actually occurred on this particular 3-mile stretch of highway – a safe, easily driven stretch with long sight distances, for those not familiar. My suspicion: somewhere between 0 and 2. I find this a pretty flimsy justification for what appears to be a 90 day, 100-car publicity stunt. I wonder how many thousands of gallons of gasoline will be consumed? 5 gallons / day * 100 cars * 90 days = 45,000 gallons of gasoline, as a highly conservative estimate. Yes, that will help the fuel crisis. Glad to see the gov’t is looking out for us. <br> <br> Law enforcement likes to leave the impression that these sorts of "crackdowns" actually make the roads safer, not more dangerous from drivers slamming on their brakes as they come up on artificially clogged traffic. I, and many other individuals, will simply go around the traffic blockage, thus re-routing some traffic fatalities to other locations, at the cost of extra gasoline and time. I wonder to what extent such re-routing contributed to the alleged "58% drop" soundbite from Savannah. Furthermore, I see no statistics as to whether this was a long term improvement or only during the "crackdown". <br> <br> Also, it should be noted that I-75 does not run through Paulding County, so I am not sure why Paulding deputies should be participating. The mentioned strip of highway, all of 3 miles long, is wholly well inside Bartow County (nowhere near Paulding.) Shouldn't that be out of their jurisdiction? Perhaps they will be patrolling surface streets and highways within Paulding. <br> <br> Certainly, individual drivers ought to drive responsibly. No one is going to deny that. But somehow the idea of a "crackdown" seems to fit better in an old Eastern Bloc country where they said, "Your papers please, comrade" than in a country where we say, "Give me liberty or give me death!"
By Tim

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