Road fatality trend down locally

CHILLICOTHE — As another holiday weekend on area roads approaches bringing an influx of traffic as the Easyriders Rodeo comes to town, the Chillicothe Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol is hoping to continue a downward trend in fatalities within its two-county coverage area.

According to patrol statistics, the number of deaths on roads in Ross and Pike counties is down by four for the year to date when compared with the same period in 2014. The four deaths in Ross County so far this year is up two from the first eight months of 2014, but the two in Pike County marks a six-person decrease from last year.

“Our fatalities overall are significantly down in our area,” said Lt. Virgil Conley, of the Chillicothe Post. “Statewide and nationwide, they’re up significantly. We just happen to be fortunate we’re in a down trend as far as fatal crashes go.”

A part of that decline can be tied to luck and a strong will to survive among serious crash victims.

“Our injury crashes continue to plague us,” said Conley. “We’ve had several near-misses in the last several weeks and the last few months of very serious crashes that just happened not to turn out to be fatalities when the people were able to survive their injuries and didn’t succumb to the bad crash.”

Despite the concern over injury crashes, total crashes investigated in the two-county area are down about 100 from last year’s numbers. The local figures buck the statewide trend, in which the patrol has investigated 828 more crashes than a year ago.

The effort to reduce traffic crashes and fatalities locally hinges on three a “three-E” approach – engineering, enforcement and education – Conley said. The engineering component comes from working with the Ohio Department of Transportation or county engineer in identifying problem areas for which there is an engineering fix. The enforcement angle involves making regular traffic stops or focusing enforcement efforts on areas of concern.

“U.S. 23, for instance, south of town,” Conley offered as an example. “We continue to have bad crashes year after year after year down there.”

Finally, there’s the education component that has been boosted significantly by working with the Ross County Health District’s Safe Communities program.

“Safe Communities does a great job getting the message out contacting not only the schools, older drivers, they work well with the media, they’ll go to the Paints games, they’ll get involved with local community events just to get that message out about wearing a safety belt, slowing down and don’t be drug-impaired and drive, so they’re a very significant asset,” Conley said.

Safe Communities conducted a survey of about 200 visitors to the recent Ross County Fair asking about traffic safety issues. While the results of the survey were revealing, Vonda Kern, from Safe Communities, said some of what children told survey takers was alarming.

“I can’t tell you how many little ones dished the goods on mom or dad’s driving habits,” she said. “More often than not, it wasn’t flattering.”

The concern is with distracted driving, which 98 percent of adults surveyed said is a real problem locally but which very few said they were guilty of – particularly with regards to texting and driving.

“It’s one of those behaviors that people think is okay for them to do, but it’s a problem when others do it,” said Rami Yoakum, public information officer for the health district. “We see other drivers every day texting or talking on their cell phones and think they’re a danger, but when we do it ourselves, it’s necessary and we (think we) can do it safely.”

In terms of the upcoming holiday weekend, ODOT District 9 spokesperson Kathleen Fuller said that crews working on the resurfacing of U.S. 23 from the southern corporation limit of Waverly south to around Ohio 32 and from just north of Waverly to about a half-mile from the Ross County line will be “pulling the barrels back” for the holiday. In other words, the road in those areas which has been reduced to one lane in each direction for work to take place will open up to two lanes in each direction for the duration of the holiday before work resumes.

Fuller said no other ODOT projects in Ross or Pike counties should impact traffic for the holiday. Immediately after the holiday weekend, however, Ohio 772 will be reduced to one lane between Rinehart Road and Liberty Hill Road for a culvert replacement project. Throughout construction, which should begin Tuesday, traffic will be maintained in one lane through use of temporary signals, with all work expected to be finished by mid- to late-fall.