State troopers ready for holiday weekend

The Tennessee Highway Patrol is gearing up for a statewide traffic safety campaign heading into the long Fourth of July weekend.

Troopers were to begin a period of heightened DUI enforcement beginning at 12:01 a.m. today through midnight Sunday.

A host of sobriety and seat belt checkpoints will be instituted in districts throughout the state.

Troopers in Lawrence County in Middle Tennessee will operate under “no refusal” policies; an on-call judge may issue search warrants to compel a blood-alcohol test and override a suspected drunken driver’s refusal to take a breath-alcohol test.

Lt. Bill Miller said that county experienced a 10 percent increase in traffic fatalities in 2015.

State troopers in Shelby County will conduct a driver’s license checkpoint on Austin Peay Highway south of Pleasant Ridge Road on Sunday afternoon.

During last year’s 96-hour Fourth of July weekend, there were 12 vehicular deaths in the state, down from 19 the previous year.

According to the Highway Patrol, of the 12 deaths, seven of the people killed were in vehicles and five were on motorcycles.

Three of those deaths were alcohol related.

The one death recorded in Shelby County that weekend was not attributed to an alcohol-related offense.

Highway Patrol officials analyze statistics to determine target areas to focus manpower for alcohol-related offenses and incidents.

In the first six months of this year, 416 people have died on Tennessee roadways.

Eighteen percent of those deaths were due to alcohol-impaired drivers, according to state data.