Last month we posted about law enforcement being in full effect when it came to cracking down on drunk driving during the week of the Fourth of July. Now, with Labor Day weekend starting tomorrow, law enforcement also plans on saturating the area to prevent drunk driving.
According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, over the Fourth of July weekend there were 48 people who were arrested on suspicion of drunk driving.
The goal of these types of holiday weekend saturations is to deter drunk driving and get impaired drivers off of the roadways. The hope is this will lead to a decrease in the number of people killed in motor vehicle accidents where drugs and alcohol play a role.
Just like the Fourth of July saturations, this upcoming concentration on drunk drivers will give law enforcement the chance to gain more experience using the no refusal law. Under this law, which was passed earlier this year, law enforcement is able to obtain a search warrant when a driver refuses to submit to a blood test.
Before this law, if a suspected drunk driver refused to submit to a blood test, often times the only thing the courts had to go on was the information from breath tests and the police officer's observations. However, now a warrant can be obtained and blood will be drawn to determine if a driver is above the legal driving limit. In Tennessee the legal driving limit is 0.08 percent.
Over the Fourth of July weekend there were eight people who refused to submit to a blood test and subsequently search warrant s were obtained.
Aside from increased saturation on the Tennessee roadways this weekend, agents from the Alcohol Beverage Control, the highway patrol and local police officers will also be doing checks at local bars to try and spot those who are either underage or seem too drunk to drive.
