Saw this today, hope it's not a repost or known info...

http://www.state.tn.us/safety/newsreleases...109DealsGap.htm

 

Bah. Sounds like they're lobbying for additional funding.

 

[QUOTE]The coordinated and combined efforts of Tennessee law enforcement agencies successfully reduced crashes and the level of interest from tourists traveling in the area.

 

 

at least WSB is not part of the stats...did come close

 

tailofthedragon.com sums it up best:

http://tailofthedragon.com/dragon_THP_news.html

 

 

 

FTP

 

It is not entirely fair to take law enforcement or the State of Tennessee to task.

I understand the sentiment of the owners of the tailofthedragon website; however, I suspect that the truth lies somewhere in the middle between Tennessee's one-sided and self serving press release and the rather poorly written and reasoned rebuttal of the website's owners. Afterall, they have a substantial financial stake in maintaining the status quo ante before the increased law enforcement on the Dragon.

Initially, it makes no sense to criticize the statistic of a 53% reduction in crashes on the Dragon by pointing out the speeds have be reduced to legal limits on the Dragon by virtue of the law enforcement saturation. This is circular reasoning at best: the purpose of increased law enforcement is obviously to reduce collisions, and if this is done by reduced speeds, so be it. It is criticizing law enforcement for being successful at accomplishing its task. Significantly, the website's owners do not really dispute that law enforcement has been successful in achieving its goals; moreover, they do not even attack the veracity of the cited statistics.

Assuming that the website owners are correct in their representation that 97% of feedback by tourists has been negative, that may be relevant from a policy standpoint, but legally it is absolutely irrelevant. Law enforcement officials in Tennessee or anywhere else for that matter have no obligation to decide to enforce traffic laws based on public opinion or the popularity of the traffic laws.

In conclusion, the website owners write:

"There are other approaches the state could have taken to handle the supposed problems. The path they chose was moronic. It is a sad commentary on those in charge. Now the initiative is over and the troopers have departed. Is the problem solved or did the heavy-handed tactics just reduce tourism for years? We