MEMPHIS, Tenn. — Troopers with the Tennessee Highway Patrol are all over the interstate lighting up drivers left and right, looking for aggressive drivers after a string of shootings on I-40 and 240.
There have been four in the last week and three of them involved road rage.
We followed along with one trooper as he looked for aggressive drivers. For example, he pulled over one woman for speeding and changing lanes without signaling.
“I was going 104 to catch up with you,” the trooper told her. “You was pulling off. I’m like I ain’t going to be able to catch this woman.”
He asked why she was driving so fast and she said it was because the other drivers around here were driving too slow.
“It’s a serious problem,” THP Cpt. Jimmie Johnson said.
If you come across something like that on the road, THP has some advice: Avoid the driver. Don’t make eye contact. Don’t honk your horn. Find a safe way to call police or THP by dialing *THP.
THP says that tip about not honking your horn is particularly important because if you do that you might make a bad situation way worse.
“It instigates. It takes it to the next level. Normally, when someone’s driving aggressively they got something on their mind and trying to get somewhere and blowing your horn, that takes their attention off that and they start to focus on you,” Cpt. Johnson says.
Tickets for aggressive or reckless driving can result in a fine starting at $50. The woman I mentioned earlier just got a warning today.
This THP operation is part of a larger operation to crack down on distracted driving too.
