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Ohio 4 to receive lots of police attention Friday

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By Angela Watson Gay, Staff Writer Updated 11:01 PM Tuesday, December 15, 2009

From the northern end of Cincinnati to Sandusky, a multi-jurisdictional effort to promote traffic safety on Ohio 4 will occur for 24 hours beginning Friday, Dec. 18.

Forty-two law enforcement agencies, in partnership with the Ohio Traffic Safety Office, will patrol the corridor and enforce safety issues including impaired driving, speed, aggressive driving and seat belt use.

According to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office, from the three-year period (2006 through 2008) there have been 38 fatal crashes, 283 incapacitating injury crashes, 1,410 crashes involving alcohol, speed or no seat belt along the state route whose southern terminus is at U.S. 42 in Cincinnati, and whose northern terminus is at U.S. 6 in Sandusky nearly to Lake Erie.

“This is the first time in recent history that we’re aware of doing anything like this because it’s the entire corridor,” Lindsay Komlanc, spokeswoman for the Ohio Department of Public Safety, said Tuesday, Dec. 15.

Komlanc said the hope is to have more high-intensity enforcement efforts along other state routes.

Some area agencies participating in this one include the Montgomery County Sheriff’s Office as well as police departments in Dayton, Moraine, and Miami Twp.

“For the local agencies participating, it was about them doing what they can do to keep their communities safe,” Komlanc said, noting that each jurisdiction will concentrate on a traffic safety issue that most impacts that particular community.

“This crackdown is truly about saving lives and reducing injuries,” said Miami Twp. police Maj. John DiPietro, who is the spokesman for the regional DUI Task Force.

DiPietro said speed is an issued along the portion of Ohio 4 runs through Miami Twp.

A traffic car is being assigned to that section of the road for the entire 24-hour period.

“High visibility enforcement patrols are really effective,” he said.

DiPietro would like to see the effort expand from the Ohio River and Lake Erie to “resolve this problem not just on our roadways but on our waterways, too.”

The Ohio Traffic Safety Office coordinates and funds DUI task forces and grants for local law enforcement and safety partners to combat impaired and unsafe driving.

It also promotes educational programs, coalition- building efforts and campaigns focused on highway safety through guidance from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.

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