Officers from the Clark County OVI Task Force, comprised of the highway patrol, Clark County Sheriff’s Office and Springfield Police Division, stopped drivers to check if they were impaired and to make sure they were wearing their seat belts.
About 20 additional officers also patrolled the streets looking for those issues as well as speeding violations, said. Lt. Matthew Cleaveland of the highway patrol’s Springfield post.
“In the last year or so, we’ve seen two or three OVI impaired drivers come through the checkpoint (each night),” Cleaveland said.
Bea Allen lives near the intersection and says she’s seen quite a few OVI checkpoints in her 35 years living there. She said she’s always surprised by the number of impaired drivers who come through, even though the checkpoint is publicized ahead of time.
“Until you see it, you don’t really realize how many people are out drinking and driving,” she said.
The campaign is meant to stop impaired drivers before they cause a crash. Last year, there were 380 OVI-related crashes in Ohio, in which 411 people were killed, Cleaveland said. The highway patrol averages about 25,000 OVI arrests each year statewide.
Already, the patrol is up about 700 arrests so far this year, which Cleaveland said is concerning.
“The patrol is doing everything in its power to remove these impaired drivers from the roadways,” he said. “As the numbers show, there’s still a lot of people who choose to make bad choices and choose to drink and drive.”
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