COLUMBIA, S.C. — A new team has been put together in South Carolina to help crack down on aggressive driving.
The State Department of Public Safety introduced their new Area Coordinated Enforcement (ACE) team on Wednesday.
The team includes Highway Patrol troopers and officers from the State Transport Police.
It's all ahead of the July 4th holiday during the stretch known as the 100 deadly days of summer.
Colonel Chris Williamson of the state highway patrol says last year during the July 4th travel period, they saw 11 deaths in South Carolina.
"In the past year, South Carolina has, unfortunately, followed a nationwide trend of increasing fatalities and collisions as well as vehicles traveling at excessive speeds and engaging in deadly driving behaviors such as tailgating, weaving in and out of traffic, and driving under the influence," said Colonel Williamson.
The department says the new ACE teams, "were developed to provide assistance to the seven Highway Patrol Troops with a goal toward improving response times in areas of high call volumes and to reduce serious injury and fatal collisions statewide."
"Those ACE task forces work in teams to bring resources to hotspots where the troop may be seeing problems with collisions or a patter of violations that lead to collisions and fatalities," explained Colonel Williamson.
These new unmarked vehicles include several Dodge Chargers to help better find aggressive drivers.
The department says if you're pulled over by one of these unmarked vehicles and you want to make sure it's a traffic stop, you can put on your flashers, slow down your vehicle and follow the trooper's instructions. You can call *HP to confirm it's a legitimate traffic stop.
Colonel Dean Dill with the SC State Transport Police says they'll be using unmarked pickup track and Tahoes as well.
"During COVID-19, we saw just how much we depend on large trucks to transport goods across our state and nation. Our goal is to keep that process moving smoothly and safely," said Colonel Dill.
While people are driving, people should make sure they are keeping in mind of not driving too fast for conditions, not driving under the influence and failing to yield right of way.
Law enforcement wants to remind people to maintain a safe distance from trucks, don't ride in their blind spot, cut them off or break abruptly.
"We still have many weeks to go before the end of summer," said Colonel Williamson. "Let's get there."