WALBRIDGE – The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Motorcycle Unit will be available for media interviews and a photo opportunity in front of the Walbridge Patrol Post this morning at 9:00 a.m. The Walbridge Post is at 29256 Lemoyne Road in Millbury.

All this week 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:

• In June, troopers focused on impaired drivers through a combination of low-manpower sobriety checkpoints, saturation patrols, OhioSafe Commute, and work zone safety operations;
• Starting July 1, troopers focused on metropolitan outer belt and interstate patrolling; and
• For several months, troopers and commanding officers have used highly-detailed mapping, such as those provided by Google Earth™ and other Geo-mapping software to better utilize existing manpower. The effectiveness of traffic stops impacting traffic crashes is also now possible through Global Positioning Satellites (GPS) mapping of Patrol cruiser locations. Fatal crash maps of individual communities and problem areas can be viewed on the Patrol’s Web site at www.statepatrol.ohio.gov.

After an absence of over 50 years, and in part to combat the increase in motorcycle fatalities, the Ohio State Highway Patrol reintroduced motorcycle units in May.

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 Walbridge Post phone number is (419) 666-1323.

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