MURFREESBORO, Tenn. (WTVF) — If you've ever driven on Medical Center Parkway, you know the road can get pretty busy.
"We had just seen a pretty big spike in a couple weeks in June and in July of injury crashes and property damage crashes in that little section of roadway," Lt. Greg Walker with the Murfreesboro Police Department said.
That's why on Wednesday, MPD called in extra officers to patrol Medical Center Parkway from The Avenue to Manson Pike.
"We see people dialing numbers, texting, facetiming, things of that nature," he said.
Walker said in one day the department issued 30 handsfree citations.
"People do a lot of things that they might not really realize how dangerous it could be, but anything we do that keeps our attention off the roadway especially when it's really congested traffic," he said.
The Rutherford County Traffic Safety Task Force, which includes different county and state law enforcement agencies, was formed three years ago to deal with problems on roads.
"Between us, the highway patrol, the sheriff's department — all these agencies are just going to try to work on stretches of roadway that have seen a spike in crashes and other traffic activity to try and bring those numbers down," Walker said
Using data the task force decides what problem areas to focus on.
The goal is to reduce crashes and save lives, which is why the work will continue come Monday.
"The task force once again is going to be out on New Salem Highway, which is Highway 99 from about the Warrior drive intersection right off the interstate all the way out to about Rockvale Elementary School," Walker said.
Although it's never happened in his more than 20 years as an officer, Walker said his hope is that no one gets a ticket during the next operation.
