Tennessee Highway Patrol colonel: Dangerous to enforce HOV lanes

Joel Ebert | Nashville Tennessean

In an effort to reduce congestion in urban areas like Nashville, Tennessee has had high-occupancy vehicle lanes on highways since 1993.

Drivers who use the lanes are required to have two passengers in the vehicle during specific time periods, normally corresponding with times where congestion is high. State law gives officials, including the Tennessee Highway Patrol, the ability to fine those found driving in the HOV lanes without two passengers during the allowable time period $50.

But the state's top highway patrol officer, Col. Dereck Stewart, told a panel of lawmakers Thursday enforcing the HOV law is not a priority for his agency.

Stewart's response came after Rep. Charlie Baum, R-Murfreesboro, asked him if the agency had been ticketing violators of the HOV law.

"To be honest with you, this is not a focus for us," Stewart said. "I don't have enough resources available."

He said he could not find any statistics on crashes or a loss of life because someone is traveling in an HOV lane.

"So I have to allocate my resources a little bit better and put them in our problem areas," he said. "So HOV lane enforcement is not a primary focus for us."

Stewart defended the decision further, saying it would be dangerous to have HOV violations enforced. The lanes are typically found on the left side of highway, leaving little room.

The only areas in Tennessee with HOV lanes are in Memphis and Nashville. In the Memphis area, they're found in both directions of Interstate 40 and Interstate 55. In Nashville, the lanes are found in both directions of Interstate 40, Interstate 24 and Interstate 65.

While Stewart's admission Wednesday that HOV violations are not enforced by highway patrol officers, drivers could still face fines by local law enforcement officials.

Since 2015, Metro has collected $22,400 in fines for HOV violations, according to data provided by Bill Cartwright, chief clerk of Davidson County's Traffic Violations Bureau.

Mariah Timms contributed to this report.

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Reach Joel Ebert at jebert@tennessean.com or 615-772-1681 and on Twitter @joelebert29.