By Erica Estep, Bristol Herald Courier (Tennessee)
Tight budgets at Sheriff’s Departments across the Tri-Cities are keeping aging patrol cars on the road, but could they be a highway hazard? Could they threaten your safety and officers?
The average Sheriff’s deputy in Tennessee drives a 7 year old car with 200,000 miles. News Channel 11 when in search of how Tri-Cities patrol cars measure up.
Bristol, TN resident Kim Gentry can’t believe he shares the road with aging patrol cars that could put him in danger. Gentry says, “I’m shocked that the cars are out there with 200,000 miles on them going around.”
“When we pick up the phone and we dial 911, we expect a police officer to respond and the last thing we need is a call saying they’re waiting on a tow truck.”, adds Gentry.
It’s a fear shared by the deputies who drive them. Sullivan County Sgt. Jeff Cassidy talks about the worst that can happen, “If you’re going to a real bad call, say a domestic, a fight in progress, anything like that, burglary, robbery, and your car goes down, there’s really nothing you can do.”
Cassidy isn’t taking any chances with his 5 year old car that’s already racked up 190,000 miles. He says, “I don’t take this car even on the interstate running code over 85-90 miles an hour because it just gets dangerous after that. It’s all over the road.”
Kim Gentry worries, “The thoughts of them coming by real quick on a curvy road in a vehicle that may not be able to handle that, it’s kind of frightening.”
It’s Chris Davis’ job to make sure there aren’t any unsafe vehicles pulling out of the Sullivan County garage. Davis says, “Not here, there’s no way, because we check them so close. We go over them with a fine tooth comb.”
Sullivan County Cruisers are serviced every 5,000 miles and retired if they are deemed unsafe.
Davis takes his job seriously because he says, “What it comes down to is their lives are in our hands.”
Tri-Cities Deputies drive nearly 200 miles a day in their patrol cars. That means each vehicle would rack up about 50,000 miles a year.
We did some checking and found out that Carter, Hawkins and Unicoi Counties still have patrol cars with more than 200,000 miles. THP replace theirs at 120,000. Washington County, Virginia purchased all new vehicles last year.