Calls from the community resulted in the arrest of two individuals for driving under the influence over Labor Day weekend in the city of McMinnville.
“McMinnville Police Department made three impaired driving arrests over the Labor Day weekend and two of those arrests were actually the result of concerned citizens observing someone’s bad driving and calling to have us check it out,” said Police Department Lt. Mark Mara. “I think it’s great the community is stepping up to help us make the roads safer. Those calls led to the removal of two people who shouldn’t have been behind the wheel of a motor vehicle.”
The National Safety Council says Labor Day weekend is one of the deadliest times for traffic fatalities. For the safety of McMinnville motorists, the police department held saturation patrols when extra officers would be on the streets specifically looking for impaired drivers.
Mara says motorists behaved themselves during the saturation patrol hours.
“There was a lot of traffic on the roadways all weekend,” he said. “We had 20 hours of overtime issued to the officers for the saturation patrol. They stopped 12 vehicles that were doing something illegal, but it was mostly non-moving violations such as a headlight out. We issued six tickets and made one arrest. One person didn’t have a good driver’s license. There were no DUI arrests made or DUI-related accidents during the saturation patrol hours.”
Over the entire weekend, the police department made the two DUI arrests from citizens calling in and worked one DUI-related accident that resulted in the third arrest.
“The DUI prosecutor was involved in one of the DUI arrests and the Drug Recognition Expert was called in on two of the DUI arrests, so we worked as a team over the weekend to make the roadways safer,” said Mara.
Warren County Sheriff’s Department and Tennessee Highway Patrol also had extra officers on the roads looking for impaired drivers over the holiday weekend.