COLUMBUS – The state is establishing a new distracted driving safety corridor in central Ohio.
The latest target zone will be on a 12-mile stretch of State Route 161/State Route 37 between New Albany and Granville in Licking County, officials said. It replaces one that had been located on a stretch of U.S. 33 between the Franklin-Fairfield county line and State Route 188.
“We’ve seen great success building awareness through the use of distracted driving safety corridors in other areas of the state. In less than a year, the safety corridor on U.S. 33 in Fairfield County saw a dramatic decrease in crashes and fatalities, prompting a decision to relocate the corridor to Licking County.” said Ohio Department of Transportation District 5 Deputy Director Jason Sturgeon
ODOT crews began installing signs along the roadway earlier this week warning drivers that will be “zero tolerance” for unsafe driving habits in the area and the Ohio State Highway Patrol is vowing motorists will notice increased enforcement.
From 2018 to 2020, there were approximately 200 crashes on the SR 161/37 corridor between Beech Road and State Route 16, nearly a quarter of which resulted in an injury or fatality, according to the patrol, and troopers have handed out 169 distracted driving citations in Licking County since last year.
A target enforcement corridor was set up last year on I-71 in Delaware and Morrow counties north of Columbus.