Extra Patrols And Higher Gas Prices Mark The Beginning Of Summer Travel Season
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Extra Patrols And Higher Gas Prices Mark The Beginning...
Extra Patrols And Higher Gas Prices Mark The Beginning Of Summer Travel Season
Nate Morabito/11 Connects
Memorial Day Weekend marks the unofficial start of the summer travel season and that means two things: higher gas prices and extra patrols. Early birds Tom Malishaucki and his wife caught a break on the open road Thursday en route to Gatlinburg.
“You can tell by the way traffic is running, this is light,“ Malishaucki said. “This is great travel right now.“
However, with more people expected on the roads come Friday, some drivers may be singing a different tune and not just when it comes to the number of travelers. Patricia Wolf is headed to Asheville Sunday. She paid $2.28 per gallon of gas Thursday to fill her tank.
“Summer’s coming and people are going to drive more, so they just jack the prices up,“ Wolf said.
Nationwide, gas prices have increased every day for the last month. Still, the prices are not as bad as last Memorial day weekend. In 2008, the average Memorial Day Weekend price for a gallon of gas ranged from $3.74 to $3.86 in the Tri-Cities. Johnson City AAA Office Branch Manager Cecilia Campbell says she doesn’t expect a huge jump in prices at the pump this summer.
“Nothing like last year,“ Campbell said.
Still, she believes drivers should prepare for a small increase.
Drivers should prepare for a much larger increase when it comes to the number of patrol cars on the highways. Dozens of agencies in North Carolina, Virginia, and Tennessee say each and every one of their officers will be on the roads this weekend. Those agencies kicked off their “Summer Heat” campaign Thursday in Fall Branch.
“We’ll pull out all the stops from now until the end of Labor Day,“ THP Lt Col Tracy Trott said. “We’ll have motorcycles, we’ll have helicopters, we’ll have all of our troopers out on the holiday weekends.“
In the last two years, Trott says extra summer patrols have helped reduce Tennessee’s annual highway fatality rate by 200 people. He hopes that trend continues this summer.
“We’re working from year to year, month to month, trying to reduce the fatality level, trying to reduce the injury accidents, trying to increase our enforcement and visibility efforts so people know we’re out there and drive safe and accordingly and really police themselves,“ Trott said.
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Reader Reactions
Hmmm…...More drivers expected, so gas prices go up. I believe we call this Supply and Demand. Where are all the folks who blasted me last year when I made this point?
Ahhh I too feel so much safer now that the THP has ramped up patrols. The blood suckers are just like the Red Light Cameras in Kingsport and Jonesborough. Sucking the blood out of working people to pay for government. Couldn’t the reduction in fatalities be related to less traffic as reported???? THP catch the real criminals - the drunk drivers and stop sitting at the bottom of hills in speed trap zones meanwhile pulling over those trying to make it to work on time!!
I know I feel safer knowing those evil speeders, non-signaling lane changers and expired tag criminals are being watched closer. You never can tell, moving violations are the gateway crime to greater and more evil crimes, today it’s a burned out signal light and 10 years from now its progressed to murder or worse. I know I will sleep better at night know the THP and oil companies jacking the price of fuel are keeping me safe.
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