Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors: How a federally-funded program aims to make the roads safer

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (WKRN) — On the roads today, it’s not just alcohol that kills, it’s also drugs. But there is a group you’ve likely never heard of with a mission to keep you safe behind the wheel.

Drugged driving cases can be complicated. Collecting blood samples, sobriety tests, presenting evidence in court.

At each step, there are a multitude of mistakes that law enforcement, lab technicians and prosecutors can make.

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“Even prosecutors will ask – what does the TSRP do?” laughed Terry Wood, a Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutor in Nashville.

TSRP stands for Traffic Safety Resource Prosecutors, which is a federally-funded program across the United States.

Wood’s territory is anywhere in Tennessee and wherever help is needed to make the roads safer.

“We are a resource prosecutor, so we help other prosecutors do their job better.”

Wood also trains law enforcement in addition to prosecutors and when it comes to drugged driving cases, that work has gotten more challenging.

“Collecting evidence, chain of custody. We help them understand that, so when they are out there investigating, they’ll be able to collect it in a constitutional way so we won’t lose the evidence later on,” said Wood.

That includes:

• Using reasonable suspicion to pull someone over.
• Executing a field sobriety test.
• Knowing a suspect’s constitutional rights.
• Using probable cause to make an arrest.
• Presenting evidence in court.

“Every year, we have about over 1,000 people in Tennessee that die from traffic crashes. So, that’s a lot of people that we are trying to save. The more we can get this out, the more we can get people thinking of driving safely, the more lives we are going to save.”

The numbers show how important TSRP’s work is.

According to the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security, one out of three deadly crashes involved driving under the influence. Wood said drugs and prescriptions make up a quarter of the wrecks and the issue is getting worse.

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“Yes, drugged driving is going up. Our big problem used to be alcohol driving, and drugged driving was substantially smaller. But, we are seeing a lot more. And like I said, we are seeing poly-drug use. So we are seeing more than one drug. On average, we are seeing two or three, sometimes four different drugs while the person is driving,” said Wood.

And it doesn’t matter where the drug comes from, a DUI is a DUI. “It doesn’t matter if it’s prescribed or not, what matters is, is it impairing you, or are you safe to drive?”

According to new state data, men are far more likely than women to drive under the influence with 75 out of 100 DUI drivers being men.

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