Southwest Mississippi may not be the biggest area or the most populous part of the state, but state troopers working there were writing some big-time tickets and making arrests over the New Year’s holiday.
From 6 a.m. Thursday through Sunday, troopers across the state issued 14,792 citations, made 279 DUI arrests and investigated 178 crashes resulting in 25 injuries.
Troopers with Brookhaven-based Troop M wrote the most amount of tickets for moving violations, 1,450.
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They also made the most drug arrests by far, 51. Troop K, on the Gulf Coast, had the second highest number of drug arrests at 21.
Local troopers also made 29 DUI arrests — No. 5 out of the MHP’s nine troops — and five felony arrests, the second highest number by any troop.
Troop M had the most seat belt violations, 238, as well as the second highest number of child restraint violations, 55.
State troopers in Southwest Mississippi also worked 11 accidents with one injury.
Activity on Mississippi highways was up considerably this year compared to 2020, when troopers wrote 6,254 tickets — less than half of what they issued this year.
This year troopers gave out 1,421 seatbelt and child restraint citations, compared to 363 last year.
Two people died on highways in the state over the New Year’s holiday enforcement period. The two fatalities were in Hinds and DeSoto counties.
Troopers responded to the first at 8:10 a.m. Thursday on Highway 51 in DeSoto County. Crystal Parks, 23, of Sarah, was southbound in a 2009 Chevrolet Impala that collided with a northbound 2006 Dodge Durango driven by Catlin Carlisle, 31, of Coldwater.
Parks died in the crash, and Carlisle went to a local hospital with moderate injuries.
At 4:38 a.m. Saturday, troopers responded to a wreck on Interstate 20 in Hinds County, where Marcus A. Davaul, 26, of Jackson, apparently veered off the interstate in his 2008 Suzuki SX4 and struck a fence. He was transported to the University of Mississippi Medical Center, where he died from his injuries.
