Tennessee Highway Safety Office Joins UC Law Enforcement Leaders To Address Increase In Fatal Crashes

Fatal car crashes have nearly doubled across the Upper Cumberland to start the year.

Tennessee Law Enforcement agencies gathered together Friday morning at the Cookeville Police Department to discuss the recent rise. According to data from the Tennessee Highway Patrol, 21 people have lost their lives this year.

Tennessee Highway Safety Office Director Buddy Lewis said that he believes the cause of the increase is people becoming complacent with safe driving practices, such as wearing a seat belt and driving hands-free.

“It’s always going to happen to someone else but it’s never going to happen to me,” Lewis said. “And that’s when we see crashes occur because they don’t think about anyone but themselves, but it can happen and it can happen quickly.”

Lewis said the Cookeville Police Department was the first of a series of stops across the state. He said the goal is to increase awareness of recent statistics and promote education on how to move forward.

Lewis said he is optimistic these meetings will result in a positive change. He said the Highway Safety Office had conducted similar events in the past and saw success in decreasing fatalities.

“Traffic safety is public safety,” Lewis said. “I’ve had senior drivers contact me that are scared to death to get on our roadways at times because of how people are driving. Those people’s lives count. and we have got to do everything that we possibly can to slow people down and to make driving safely a norm across the roadways of Tennessee.”