ODOT Roadway Services Transportation Manager Kelsey Snook, left, and Lt. Nick Boes, of the Lima post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, discuss Ohio’s distracted driving trends Wednesday. It’s been a year since Ohio’s distracted driving law went into effect.
Charlotte Caldwell | The Lima News
LIMA — The Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio State Highway Patrol teamed up Wednesday to discuss distracted driving trends, a year after Ohio’s distracted driving law went into effect.
The hands-free distracted driving law started in October 2023 after a six-month education period.
According to a news release from Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s office, “There were approximately 1,112 fewer distracted driving crashes in Ohio from Oct. 5, 2023, to Oct. 4, 2024, compared to the 12 months prior. Fatal crashes attributed to distracted driving dropped 19.4%.”
According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Distracted Driving Dashboard, since the law was enacted, Allen County’s distracted driving crash breakdown is 62 property damage, 29 minor injury, 19 possible injury, five serious injury and one fatal incident.
Putnam County saw distracted driving crashes of five property damage, three possible injury and one minor injury. Auglaize County had 36 property damage, 11 minor injury and four possible injury distracted driving crashes.
The release also provided statistics from Cambridge Mobile Telematics, which found handheld phone use and screen interaction while driving is down 10%, and $283 million in economic damages have been prevented.
“Under Ohio’s new law, using a cell phone or other electronic wireless communications device is considered a primary traffic offense for all drivers, allowing law enforcement to pull over a distracted driver immediately when they witness a violation,” according to the press release. “First-time offenders are subject to a $150 fine and two points assessed to their driver’s license. Fines and points increase for repeated violations.”
First-time offenders can have fines and points waived by completing the Ohio Traffic Safety Office’s online distracted driving safety course, according to the release. In the past year, approximately 15,000 people have completed the course.
Lt. Nick Boes, of the Lima post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, shared Wednesday an experience he had with distracted driving and repeat offenders.
“A couple of weeks ago I stopped a female individual who, less than a month beforehand, got a distracted driver citation, and I issued her a citation as well for that,” he said. While he was watching traffic, he saw the phone in her hand and asked her about it during the traffic stop, and she admitted to being distracted.
While drivers might think their phone usage is discreet, “it was as clear as day to me,” Boes said about the traffic stop.
“There are some heavy consequences with it, and it’s a hardship. It’s meant to be that way to prevent people from doing it over and over again. So the more times you do it, the more severe the consequences,” Boes said. “It’s one thing we have to have zero tolerance on because we see so many crashes from it.”
Boes said even with the distracted driving statistics they are seeing, there could be more incidents where distracted driving can’t be proven.
“It can never be fully, accurately reported. Not everyone admits to driving distracted,” he said. “Not all cases can we get the evidence to prove distracted driving. But it’s always been a problem. Statistically speaking, you’re more likely to be involved in a crash with a distracted driver than you are with an impaired driver.”
ODOT Roadway Services Transportation Manager Kelsey Snook added the dangers of distracted driving combined with construction zones.
“When you’re on a four-lane interstate working and the only thing between you and the public driving is a traffic cone and they’re going 70, 75 mph, it doesn’t feel that fast, it feels insanely faster,” Snook said. “Then you add a device in the middle of that, and it’s scary.”
Snook added, “I just hope people think about the grief of living with having some little kid losing their parents because of someone texting. A text message is not worth someone’s life.”
Reach Charlotte Caldwell at 567-242-0451.
