THSO Warns Drivers of High Crash Areas

The Tennessee Highway Safety Office’s latest campaign warns drivers of potentially dangerous roads and intersections.

The THSO placed signs and banners across the state reading “High Crash Area” and “Extra Traffic Enforcement Ahead”.

Law Enforcement Liaison Fred Sherrill said drivers should be cautious in areas where these signs are located.

“When you see these signs, please slow down and be aware because those are there for a reason,” Sherrill said. “Those are there because we have data that shows that for some reason – maybe it’s being inattentive, or texting and driving, or something like that – has caused these areas to be a lot higher than most for crashes.”

Sherrill said the signs and banners were placed in areas that saw an increase in crashes in 2017. McMinnville, for example, saw a large increase in the number of crashes last year than in 2016.

“That told us we had a problem down that way,” Sherrill said. “It’s someway of notifying the public, or doing extra saturations or checkpoints or something like that just to get everybody aware that, for some reason, this is just an area where a lot of people are crashing, [so] we came up with the banners.”

Sherrill said the signs will be on display until the summer travel season winds down.

“If those areas have changed and we have some other hotspots that we need to put [the signs] in, we’ll put them in there and move them around,” Sherrill said.

Signs can be found throughout the Upper Cumberland region, including parts of Cookeville and Exit 317 on I-40 in Cumberland County.