There were over 1,100 motorists checked and two DUI arrests made during two sobriety checkpoints Friday night in Warren County.
The first checkpoint on Sparta Highway near the hospital resulted in both DUI arrests as 819 vehicles passed through the checkpoint from 7 to 8:30 p.m.
The second checkpoint in Newtown resulted in one arrest on an outstanding warrant and several infractions, but no DUI arrests. There were 331 vehicles to pass through the checkpoint from 9:30 to 11 p.m.
“The reason we’re doing this is to save lives,” said Sheriff’s Department chief deputy Tommy Myers, one of many lawmen on the scene in Newtown.
Highway Patrol Lt. Billy Prater promised more checkpoints in the future.
The sobriety checkpoints are being conducted because Warren County had 18 traffic fatalities in 2017. Fred Sherrill, a representative with the Tennessee Highway Safety Office, says that’s a high number for a rural community.
“We’re trying to get the fatality rate down and we’re already minus three from where we were at this point last year,” said Sherrill. “We’re hoping to squash this before warmer weather arrives, which means more people will be out on motorcycles. A lot of the crashes are because people are impaired, they’re not buckling up, or they’re not paying attention.”
Sherrill provides assistance to a large Upper Cumberland region that includes 58 police departments and 28 sheriff’s departments. He brought a mobile trailer to both sobriety checkpoints Friday. It served as a mini police station, complete with breathalyzer equipment, a holding area for suspects, and even a supply of child safety seats.
Sherrill said the child seats are given to motorists who go through the checkpoints with a child in their vehicle who is unrestrained.
“We’d much rather have the child leave in a proper safety seat than anything else,” said Sherrill.
The checkpoints are financed through a grant from the Tennessee Highway Safety Office that pays for overtime for the officers and other expenses. Local law enforcement budgets are not impacted.
