TOLEDO – Beginning today, and running through Friday, the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Motorcycle Unit is assisting troopers from the Toledo and Walbridge Patrol posts by patrolling metro interstates in the Toledo area.

This is part of a continuing Patrol effort to address a systemic threat to safety in Ohio’s major metropolitan areas. Since earlier this summer, troopers and local law enforcement officers have targeted impaired and reckless drivers near Ohio’s largest cities.

“Our highways have become the most statistically dangerous place to be in Ohio,” Colonel Paul D. McClellan, Patrol superintendent said. “We literally and figuratively must stop the bloodshed by improving rural traffic safety while also impacting the highest traffic volume areas. We will make an impact by focusing on impaired driving and other crash-causing violations.”

Troopers are undertaking this "massive effort” in the metro areas and attacking this systemic problem in three ways:

The six troopers who are part of the unit completed training with the Northwestern University Center for Public Safety’s Police Motorcycle Operator Training and focus on metropolitan interstate enforcement and motorcycle safety speech details.

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Note to Editors: The Patrol’s Motorcycle Unit is available for media interviews and a photo opportunity in front of the Walbridge Patrol Post on Oct. 4 at 9:00 a.m. The Walbridge Post is at 29256 Lemoyne Road in Millbury; Phone: (419) 666-1323.

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