While a complete analysis of the success and impact of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s 2008 metro initiatives will not be available until early next year, in this, our 75th Anniversary year, the Ohio State Highway Patrol has directly contributed to what appears to be the safest year on Ohio roads in record
d history.

For several months the provisional state fatality numbers have been running at more than 100 fewer than the same time period for last year.

The impact of operationally sound metro initiatives and the increase in OVI arrests are contributing factors in the record-setting achievement.

In Cincinnati, Cleveland, Columbus, Dayton, and Toledo – those areas where Ohio’s population centers are the greatest – the Patrol saw the greatest impact in saved lives. We attribute the significant urban fatality reduction, in part, to the metro enforcement initiatives conducted in 2008.

Working side-by-side with local police officers and sheriff’s deputies in Ohio’s metropolitan areas, and with the support of city leaders, significant reductions in traffic fatalities were realized.

Provisional data through mid-November indicated a fatality reduction of more than 60 lives saved in urban areas compared to the same time period last year. Traffic crash deaths outside metro areas also declined as troopers maintained previously successful efforts. Overall, traffic deaths are declining nationally approximately nine percent. At the same time, Ohio's death rate has run close to a 20 percent decline.

It is likely that higher fuel prices and fewer miles being driven also contributed the overall fatality reduction. However, because certain areas of the state experienced traffic crash death increases, fuel prices alone should not be solely credited.

Armed with public opinion results from an ongoing public opinion survey project at Ohio’s driver examination stations, troopers directly addressed the most significant traffic safety concerns listed by Ohio motorists.

During the past two years in a survey that has sought traffic safety opinions from approximately 14,000 Ohio citizens, 93 percent of respondents ranked drunk- or drug-impaired driving as a very important concern and 85 percent of respondents viewed reckless or aggressive drivers as a very important concern.

State troopers responded to the call-to-action and through the end of October had made 21,439 OVI arrests, which were 808 more OVI arrests than at the same time in 2007. There is little doubt the increase in OVI arrests directly contributed to the 22 percent reduction in OVI-related fatal crashes recorded in Ohio as compared with October of last year.

While Ohio roads were getting safer, state troopers were also directly impacting the safety of Ohio communities and neighborhoods. Coupled with the traffic safety successes, the Patrol's 24/7 Initiative, which maximizes technology and significantly reduced case-related paperwork for road officers, yielded impressive results related to interrupting the criminal element on Ohio roads.

Year-to-date through October, Criminal Patrol officers seized illegal narcotics valued at $44.5 million, made 1,303 felony arrests and 833 felony warrant apprehensions.

During the first 10 months of the year troopers made 4,453 drug arrests – which were 505 more drug arrests than through October 2007. In many instances these drug arrests led local drug task forces to apprehensions in larger drug and other criminal cases.

Troopers also made 205 arrests for illegal weapons, which was a 15 percent increase for illegal weapons arrests than through last October. And finally, state troopers recovered 454 stolen vehicles through October of this year.

Final statistics will be available during the opening months of 2009 but all signs point to this year being among the most successful in the 75-year history of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and illustrative of the many ways in which the Division creates public value everyday.