I contacted Mike Browning, the Director of Public Affairs for the THP asking for a statement about the enforcement program at Deals Gap and I also asked him some specific questions about the program. I was surprised to hear back this evening. The first part was just a copy of the statement most people have already seen from Lt. Colonel Tracy G. Trott. He did provide me with some statistics from last weekends activity, and it was even broken down by how many citations had been issued to motorcycles and how many to cars. Below is the email he sent me.
Tank, In blue is a statement from Lt. Col Tracy Trott who oversees the East Bureau of the Tennessee Highway Patrol. Also find enforcement statistics. As you have noticed, the THP has started an enforcement program in the Deals Gaps Area of Hwy. 129. Some people are very upset with this effort and some people applaud it as long overdue. We are receiving emails on both sides of the issue. I can tell you in the past year, we received calls and emails every few days that ask us to do “something” in this area. The overwhelming majority of people describe this area as “total chaos and lawlessness.” When you combine these type of descriptions and the statistical information on crashes and fatalities (three fatalities in one weekend two weeks ago), we felt like we had to do something as a public safety organization. You may not agree with our program but it is aimed at protecting the public who frequent that area and ride in a safe manner. It has nothing to do with “quotas” and driving tourism from Tennessee. Anyone who rides in that area and does so safely is always welcome and will not have any problem with the THP. We will continue to conduct our enforcement program for the near future in an effort to make Deals Gap a safe place for recreational motorcycle activity. Lt. Colonel Tracy G. Trott Tennessee Highway PatrolField Operations Bureau- East—————————————————-The following is the activity for the weekend of August 3-5, 2007.
Motorcycles CarsSpeeding————–21 Speeding———-28
Registrations———41 Registrations—–7
Driver License——–3 Driver License—-2
Helmet Law———–5 Seat Belt———-7
Lane Violation——–4 (left of center) Lane Violation—-3 (left of center)
Riding Standing up–2 Insurance Law—-3
Improper Passing—5
Insurance Law——9 Total Citation—–50
Other—————–2Total Citation 92
Mike Browning
Director, Public Affairs/PIO
Department of Safety
While it is obvious that more motorcycles received a citation than cars I believe the ratio of motorcycles to cars on a given weekend is much higher than the citations that were passed out. This means to me that you would be more likely to get a citation in a car than on a motorcycle.
I would like to thank Mr. Browning for providing this information to us and his quick response.