Drunk drivers in BCSD's sights

Sheriff Randall Boyce says this trailer will soon be outfitted with equipment to assist in patrols and checkpoints geared to keep drunk drivers off Bedford County roads. (T-G Photo by Brian Mosely) [Order this photo]

The Bedford County Sheriff's Department has a message for those out there who drink and drive: We're coming for you.

And the department has a good reason for this stance: Over the past five years, Bedford County has ranked second in the state for alcohol related accidents.

But thanks to a state grant, the department will be able to devote more resources to getting these dangerous drivers off the roads and into a jail cell.

According to Detective Todd Hammond, a $40,000 grant from the Governor's Highway Safety Office will once again help the department to hold Alcohol Saturation Patrols and Roadside Sobriety Checkpoints.

This is the second year that the department has received the grant, Hammond said, and the best part is that the grant didn't cost Bedford County a dime.

The reason for the patrols and checkpoints are obvious -- to cut down on the number of drunken drivers that are on county roads.

According to Sheriff Randall Boyce, the checkpoints are set up in coordination with the Tennessee Highway Patrol. But the state grant also pays for overtime of two deputies to hit the road and "look for nothing else" but impaired drivers.

"They go out and look for drunk drivers, and they do find them," Boyce said.

Hammond, who applied for the state grant on behalf of the sheriff's department, said that Chief Deputy David Williams will be administrating the grant for the program, which he termed as "very successful last year."

Money from the grant will also go into outfitting a trailer that can be used to haul equipment such as lights, a Breathalyzer and other equipment to be utilized at the checkpoints.

High DUI numbers

According to data provided by the Governor's Highway Safety Office, from 2004-2008, Bedford County was No. 2 in the state for alcohol related crashes.

During the five year period, the county reported a rate of 3.37 alcohol related crashes per 1,000 licensed drivers in the county, resulting in the high ranking.

Trousdale County was No. 1 in the state for alcohol related crashes, according to the state figures.

Hammond said looking over statistics from Oct. 1, 2007, until Sept. 30, 2008, a total of 55 DUI arrests were made by Bedford County deputies alone, and that's not counting the arrests made by Shelbyville police.

However, from October 2008 to September 2009, the number of DUI's nearly doubled to 105 arrests made by deputies, Hammond said.

Other data from the past five years shows Bedford County had a fatal crash ranking of 53rd in the state, 13th for injury crashes and an overall crash ranking of 19 out of 95 Tennessee counties.

Other impacts

"For a county our size, if we had more manpower, we would probably be pretty close to Murfreesboro, as far as all the DUI arrests we could make," Hammond explained.

Boyce agreed.

Being No. 2 in the state for alcohol related crashes is nothing to be proud of, but authorities say what is worse is that the cost eventually bounces back to the residents of Bedford County.

For one thing, Hammond said that he has yet to work an alcohol related accident where there wasn't some kind of property damage involved.

"They've either taken down 300 feet of fence or a guardrail ... and that's coming out of our pockets," Hammond said. "And they (the people causing the accident) may not even have insurance."

Also, with that many people in the county having these types of crashes related to booze, it makes the area "high risk" for automobile insurance carriers, Hammond explained.

"We're No. 2, and everybody else ends up paying for it," Hammond said of the insurance rates.