THP Encouraging Safe Driving for Super Bowl Sunday

The Tennessee Highway Patrol encourages citizens to play it safe on the roadways during Super Bowl Sunday.

Cookeville District Captain R.C. Christian encourages citizens who will be drinking before, during, and after the big game to have a designated driver to make it home safely.

“The big thing is we just want people to be responsible for their actions,” Christian said. “One way is we hope that people always be mindful of having a designated driver, because we don’t want anybody to leave anywhere in an impaired state. We’re going to be doing saturation patrols where we’ll be looking for impaired drivers in areas with establishments where people are going to be drinking and things such as that.”

Christian said sobriety checkpoints are scheduled in Cumberland County over the weekend but added roaming routes will help officials stop drunk drivers easily.

“Our county level supervisors, our troop lieutenants, and their troop sergeants are going to be monitoring areas in their respective places that they are aware of that impaired drivers frequent,” Christian said. “Routes of egress coming in and out and routes of ingress will be checked as well. Hopefully, by doing that, we’re going to be able to use our resources more effectively and we would be if we were doing sobriety checkpoints.”

Christian said traffic flow normally varies on Super Bowl Sunday, with peak times being just before kickoff and after the final whistle with quiet moments during the game.

“When the game is on and people are engrossed in that, traffic is actually light. It’s kind of eerie in many respects because there’s not a whole lot out there,” Christian said. “After the game, that’s when everybody kind of has places to be and they have to get back to their homes. During the game it’s crazily quiet, then after the game it’s like a max exodus with a lot of people and a lot of traffic.”

The Super Bowl between the New England Patriots and the Los Angeles Rams kicks off at 5:30 p.m.