Ohio State Highway Patrol preparing enforcement blitz as revelers prepare for NYE

CLEVELAND — Forward of the New 12 months’s vacation this weekend, Northeast Ohio space legislation enforcement, together with the Ohio State Freeway Patrol, are urging and inspiring revelers to have a chosen driver or a sober journey dwelling.

After two years of muted celebrations due to the COVID-19 pandemic, the upcoming New 12 months’s vacation marks a return to relative normalcy. As they’re yearly, Ohio troopers will probably be out in full drive, cracking down on drunk and impaired drivers, stated OSHP Sgt. Bridget Matt.

“There is no such thing as a excuse [to drive impaired],” Matt stated. “In in the present day’s age, we’ve so many choices and sources accessible, from ride-sharing like Uber and Lyft, and even the quaint telephone name dwelling — telephone a pal. There is no such thing as a purpose folks needs to be getting behind the wheel and ingesting and driving.”

Though impaired driving-related deaths across the New 12 months’s vacation have steadily declined nationwide over the previous twenty years — and in Ohio as properly — the preventable and fully avoidable deaths proceed to occur.

“New 12 months’s Eve is a time to have a good time and be with household and associates. It’s a joyous second — or no less than it needs to be — a celebratory second,” Matt stated. “We’d hate to see it finish in tragedy and finish in one thing that may very well be averted.”

Troopers reported 10 complete deaths throughout 2021-2022 New 12 months’s vacation interval. Three of these deaths had been OVI-related. Throughout the 2020-2021 New 12 months’s vacation interval, troopers reported 14 complete deaths.

Throughout the 2021-2022 New 12 months’s vacation interval, Cuyahoga County was particularly crash-prone.

“We take pleasure in being primary in numerous issues. Nevertheless, crashes shouldn’t be certainly one of them,” Matt stated. “Final 12 months, over the New 12 months’s Eve vacation — in order that’s New 12 months’s Eve and New 12 months’s Day — Cuyahoga County had essentially the most crashes throughout the state of Ohio.”

In Cuyahoga County alone final New 12 months’s vacation, there have been greater than 40 OVI-related crashes, leading to one fatality. There have been a complete of 45 OVI-related arrests.

Extra broadly, over the course of all the 12 months, there have been greater than 1,800 impaired driving-related visitors deaths since 2019.

There have been 652 OVI-related visitors deaths in 2021, together with 60 in Cuyahoga County. There have been 637 OVI-related fatalities in 2020 and 527 fatalities in 2019.

“Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over has been a vastly profitable marketing campaign however there may be nonetheless work to be executed,” stated Matt. “Any time we’ve impaired drivers and OVI-related crashes or fatalities, there may be nonetheless extra work to be executed.”

Anybody eager to report an unsafe or impaired driver out on the roadway is inspired to name #677.