Rutherford County DUI Numbers Increase During Holiday Season

Rutherford County, TN – Traffic enforcement continues to be a peak priority for the Rutherford County Sheriff’s Office and deputies will continue to hold monthly operations that focus on reckless and distracted driving. One program that increases during the holiday season revolves around drunk driving. Sgt. Sean Vinson told WGNS… Over the past 6-months in Murfreesboro alone, there were at least 184 DUI arrests made.

In less than 72-hours, between December 19th and December 21st at 3PM, there were a total of 14 DUI arrests made in Rutherford County. Two suspects are also facing Driving on a Revoked or Suspended License charge and one DUI suspect was charged with evading arrest. In that same time period, there were 11 public intoxication arrests made. Out of the 25-arrests, 5 were female and 20 were males. The age of those arrested ranged from 18 to 59-years-old.

In looking at the bigger picture throughout Rutherford County, there were 957 DUI Citations issued over the past 5-years by the Tennessee Highway Patrol (2017 – 2021). Drivers who were between the ages of 20 and 34 made up the biggest percentage of DUI drivers, followed by those who are 35 to 49-years-of-age.

FATAL ACCIDENTS - In the past 12-months, the Tennessee Department of Safety reported that 1 out of every 10 DUI drivers involved in a reportable motor vehicle crash received a fatal or serious injury.

When examining current crash data, overall traffic fatalities are up by 20.7% in Rutherford County this year. Meanwhile, numbers across the state are down by 3.2%. Since the start of 2022, there have been 35 fatal accidents in Rutherford County. The highest number of auto accidents involving a death occurred in July and August. Between those two months, there were 10-fatal accidents on Rutherford County roadways.

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