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Article published Jan 12, 2009 Traffic deaths drop in '08
By Darren Dunlap of The Daily Times Staff
Seventeen people died in traffic fatalities in Blount County during 2008, the lowest number since 2002.
There were 26 fatalities in 2007 in Blount County.
Blount County's decrease mirrors a statewide drop in fatalities.
Laura McPherson, public information officer for the Tennessee Department of Safety, said preliminary statistics show fatalities in Tennessee counties were down "across the board." State Department of Safety figures show a drop of 200 traffic fatalities, from 1,211 in 2007 to 1,002 in 2008.
Locally, 12 of last year's traffic fatalities occurred outside of Alcoa and Maryville city limits in Blount County.
The Tennessee Highway Patrol was the investigating agency on nine of them, and four of the fatalities occurred on the Dragon, an 11-mile stretch of Calderwood Highway with over 300 curves that's popular with motorcyclists.
In all fatalities on the Dragon last year, the four victims rode motorcycles.
The National Park Service also investigated one fatality last year in Blount County.
The age range of victims last year was broad, from ages 23 to 83.
All but one were male.
The Alcoa Police Department, Maryville Police Department and Blount Count Sheriff's Office reported a drop in fatalities for 2008.
Capt. Rick Arnold, APD, said there were nine in Alcoa in 2007 and three in 2008. He said accidents were down overall 16 percent, and that the contributing factors were most often following too closely or failure to yield.When asked what contributed to the drop in fatalities, Arnold pointed to the departments's traffic safety unit and grant money through the Governor's Highway Safety Office (GHSO). The grants help in a number of ways, from training and equipping officers and department patrol cars, to paying a percentage of their salaries some years.
Though its grant runs out next year, the APD looks to continue the unit.
"Our plan is to keep the traffic positions in place," he said.
Blount County Sheriff's Office Spokeswoman Marian O'Briant also cited the BCSO's traffic safety unit and various state grants through the GHSO as a help in putting more officers on the roads and decreasing fatalities.
"I think that's helped us, by getting people out there and them to slow down," said O'Briant.
In some cases the grants pay for saturation patrols at problem areas and overtime to put more officers on the roads.
The BCSO saw a decrease in the number of fatalities it investigated from four in 2007 to two last year.
Maryville Police Chief Tony Crisp said the city's fatalities dropped from five in 2007 to two last year. He's pleased with the decrease and points to several possible factors for the decrease, including Maryville's traffic safety unit. The MPD started the unit in 2003, a year after the Sheriff's Office started its unit. Alcoa started its traffic safety unit in 2005.
Crisp said the department concentrates on trouble spots to decrease accidents.
"We've learned to pay close attention to our statistics," he said.