DAYTON — Ohio State Highway Patrol said it has seen a notable decrease in deadly crashes a year after Ohio’s distracted driving law was put into effect.
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As reported on News Center 7 at 6, David Garrison said it’s not unusual to see people check their phones while on the road.
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“Seems to be run-of-the-mill type of day, just checking to see what’s going on. Myself, I do it every once in a while I would admit,” Garrison said.
Which is why state troopers are cracking down on it.
“It could be a 16-year-old, up until somebody that’s elderly. We see it all ages, all days of the week, all hours of the day, people are on their phones,” Sgt. Tyler Ross with OSP said.
Sgt. Ross said since the law became a primary offense in October of last year, distracted driving crashes have dropped.
“If we look at those 12 months or 12 months prior, we’re down about 1,100 distracted driving-related crashes. And of those is a 19% reduction in fatalities. So that’s awesome. That’s a cause and an effect that shows this tool in our tools belts is working,” he said.
In that 12-month period, state troopers issued over 25,000 citations for distracted driving — that’s nearly 70 a day.
“People are losing their lives. People are being seriously injured and killed, we have to take it serious” Sgt. Ross said.
He hopes our society changes the culture around being on your phone while on the road.
“These are decisions that people are making when they get behind the wheel. You have to take it seriously. Roadway safety is a shared responsibility so you have to take that accountability and make better decisions,” Sgt. Ross said.
He said while it’s encouraging to see those crash numbers go down, there is still a lot of work to do.
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