‘Tarp it or ticket’: Gallatin police crack down on litter from vehicles

GALLATIN, Tenn. (WKRN) — “Tarp it or ticket” is Gallatin’s new motto to crack down on litter piling up on their roads.

“You generally see a lot of just bad garbage,” William Brown, general manager at Resource Authority, said about driving through Gallatin. “You’ll see a lot of furniture, chairs, tables; I’ve even seen…refrigerators, cardboard boxes, couches, mattresses.”

Over the past three years, volunteers have picked up more than 23,000 pounds of litter across Sumner County.

One of the reasons city officials believe the trash along roadsides is so bad is partly due to trucks driving with unsecured items along highways or side streets to the Sumner County Recycling Center and Transfer Station.

“We’ve noticed that that’s going on,” explained Michael Carman, a public information officer and field training officer for the Gallatin Police Department. “There’s been a law in the city of Gallatin, in the state of Tennessee; there’s a state law, and there’s also a municipal law, a city ordinance, against not having your load tarped.”

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“You might be traveling down the road, and something that you have in the back of your vehicle that is trash flies out, hits a vehicle,” Carman added.

According to the Tennessee Department of Transportation (TDOT), approximately 72% of roadside litter is due to debris and trash flying out of uncovered truck beds, but the remaining 28% of litter is intentional.

In the Volunteer State, a vehicle carrying mulch, twigs, or trash must be secured with a tarp to ensure nothing will fall or blow out.

“You want to tarp it on all four corners,” Carman advised. “You also want to tarp it on the side, and you want to make sure that the tarp is not too small, not too big, and that it is tightly secured onto the trailer you are hauling or on your truck bed.”

In a press release, Gallatin Mayor Paige Brown said without denying services or charging more for a tarp-less delivery at the dump, she feels tighter enforcement from police is the best way to keep the city clean.

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The fine for not using a tarp is $143.50.

“Nobody wants trash in the ditches and the alleys or anywhere along the freeway. It’s unsightly,” William said.

“We’re doing an enforcement from now until the end of time,” Carman said. “I mean, this is something that we’re taking very serious in the city of Gallatin.”

If you’re driving and a vehicle in front of you has debris falling from it, the best course of action is to get their tags and call them in to avoid any road obstructions or crashes, according to Carman.

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