BRENTWOOD, Tenn. (WKRN) — Some Middle Tennessee law enforcement agencies have increased efforts to keep impaired drivers off the road, with multiple departments planning DUI checkpoints this month.
Keeping impaired drivers off the road is a cause important to those who knew Brentwood officer Destin Legieza, who was killed by a drunk driver in 2020.
Legieza was ending his shift in the early morning hours of June 18, 2020 when prosecutors said Ashley Kroese drove the wrong way down Franklin Road, crossed over the center line, and crashed head-on into Legieza’s vehicle.
“She’s going to have to deal with what she did for the rest of her life and I hope it’s something that she never forgets,” Michael Fay said. “I hope when she does get out of prison, she takes the right steps to actually help others.”
Fay, a family friend to Legieza, is the head of the Destin Legieza Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to bringing awareness bout the dangers of driving under the influence.
“This way, we can at least get out prevention [and] education,” Fay said. “Hopefully, [we] remind people that the decision you make to drunk drive is not something that happens to you.”
Cases involving drivers allegedly under the influence have continued to make headlines since Legieza’s death, including a Robertson County crash that claimed the lives of two siblings. Last week, a 29-year-old man was charged with his fifth DUI after crashing along Dickerson Pike.
“If you have to have that drink, get a driver,” Fay added. “Do not go out and have that drink where you’re the one going behind the wheel.”
The Tennessee Highway Patrol (THP) has scheduled several checkpoints across Middle Tennessee in collaboration with area law enforcement agencies. The Metro Nashville Police Department will assist with a scheduled a DUI checkpoint on Friday, Jan. 17 on Antioch Pike near Cherokee Hills Drive. Murfreesboro police will work with the THP for another on Friday, Jan. 24 on Rutherford Boulevard between Broad Street and Church Street.
Fay added the foundation can lend out equipment for sobriety checkpoints to any agency that needs it.
“No one wants to be the cross on the side of a road and we’re not going to let Destin’s legacy be that cross, which does sit on the side of Franklin Road,” Fay said.”
