Union City Police increasing patrols for Labor Day weekend

UNION CITY, Tenn. — As Labor Day weekend approaches, law enforcement says it’s time to pay extra attention to the road.

The Tennessee Highway Safety Office is partnering with the Union City Police Department to increase drunk driving enforcement for the holiday weekend. Lt. Melvin Dowell said it’s a simple campaign called “Drive sober or get pulled over.”

“We do one every quarter, one every three or four months, and generally we average maybe one DUI per checkpoint,” Dowell said.

A sobriety and saturation checkpoint will be conducted this Friday between 8 p.m. and 3 a.m. in Union City. Law enforcement wants to remind the public of the many resources available to get them home safely.

In 2015 during the Labor Day weekend, almost 500 crash fatalities were reported nationwide, and 33 percent of those involved drivers who had been drinking with a .08 blood alcohol level.

“If you drive intoxicated and you get pulled over, there is no tolerance,” Dowell said.

Seventy-eight percent of drunk driving crash fatalities in 2015 happened between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. during Labor Day weekend.

For more information about the THSO, visit www.tntrafficsafety.org.