{"id":376976,"date":"2026-07-17T16:32:16","date_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:32:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376976\/"},"modified":"2026-07-17T16:32:16","modified_gmt":"2026-07-17T16:32:16","slug":"txdot-launches-operation-slowdown-across-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/376976\/","title":{"rendered":"TxDOT launches Operation Slowdown across Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>The\u00a0<a href=\"https:\/\/www.houstonchronicle.com\/news\/investigations\/article\/txdot-dumping-floodplain-harris-county-violation-21946055.php\" data-link=\"native\" class=\"\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Texas Department of Transportation<\/a> will launch its annual &#8220;Be Safe. Drive Smart.&#8221; campaign July 18, pairing a statewide public awareness effort with increased speed enforcement by law enforcement agencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The annual enforcement campaign comes as speed-related crashes continue to claim hundreds of lives across Texas each year. TxDOT says the initiative combines increased patrols with public education to encourage drivers to slow down and help prevent serious crashes.<\/p>\n<p>From July 18 to Aug. 3, TxDOT will\u00a0conduct Operation Slowdown, which includes increased patrols to stop drivers who are speeding or &#8220;driving too fast for conditions.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p>The TxDOT campaign\u00a0features the story of Shaundi Smallwood, 19, who was killed in a nighttime crash March 15, 2022, on Interstate 20 in Fort Worth. Three other passengers in the vehicle suffered serious injuries, including broken bones and third-degree burns.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere\u2019s not a day that goes by that I don\u2019t think about my son and how much I love him and miss him,\u201d said Stephenie Smallwood, Shaundi\u2019s mother, in a press release. \u201cYou just can\u2019t fill the hole in your heart when you lose a child. I\u2019m participating in this speeding awareness campaign because I don\u2019t want another family to go through the pain that my family and I have endured.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Last year, TxDOT reported that 1,247 people\u00a0died in speed-related crashes in Texas.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"The\u00a0Texas Department of Transportation will launch its annual &#8220;Be Safe. Drive Smart.&#8221; campaign July 18, pairing a statewide&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":376977,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[56,58,57],"class_list":["post-376976","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376976","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=376976"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/376976\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/376977"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=376976"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=376976"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=376976"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}