DELAWARE – As drivers prepare to hit the road this summer, the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Ohio State Highway Patrol have designated a 22-mile stretch of I-71 through Delaware and Morrow counties as the first distracted driving safety corridor in central Ohio.
Central Ohio saw approximately 4,700 distracted driving crashes in 2017 and 2018, including 13 fatalities, and 13,000 cases of distracted driving in 2019.
“We have one job when we’re behind the wheel driving a vehicle and that is to drive it responsibly,” said ODOT director Jack Marchbanks.
“Put down the phones, end the distractions, do your job, keep yourself and everyone around you safe,” he said.
Data also showed a spike in distracted driving violations along I-71 in these two counties, prompting the agencies to choose the are to target.
ODOT crews have installed more than a dozen signs to alert drivers when they enter the corridor where there is zero tolerance when it comes to unsafe driving behaviors and where motorists should expect increased enforcement by the Highway Patrol.
“Troopers will be highly visible and looking for traffic violations that cause many of the crashes in this area. Distracted driving is unsafe, irresponsible, and in a second could have lasting consequences,” patrol superintendent Col. Richard Fambro said.
Similar safety corridors have proven effective along I-76 and I-80 in Youngstown where deadly and injury crashes are down 30 percent, Marchbanks said
A second distracted driving corridor in central Ohio is planned for U.S. Route 33 between Franklin County and State Route 188 near Lancaster later this year.