13 people killed in crashes in Ohio over Thanksgiving holiday

Thirteen people were killed in 10 crashes in Ohio over the five-day Thanksgiving holiday. Last year, there were 11 people killed in 11 crashes over the holiday, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

This year, fatal crashes took place in Allen County, the Allen-Auglaize border, Franklin County, Fayette-Pickaway border, Delaware-Franklin border, Portage County and Cuyahoga County. Two of the crashes had multiple fatalities. Three of the deadly crashes involved impaired driving.

Of the 13 people killed, four were not wearing a seat belt and one was a pedestrian, according to OSHP.

Troopers defined the Thanksgiving holiday as Wednesday through Sunday. A two-vehicle crash on I-75 north in Miami Twp. that killed two people on Tuesday was not included in the Thanksgiving traffic report.

There have been 1,241 traffic fatalities so far this year, according to OSHP.

There were 14,688 OSHP incidents reported over the holiday, according to patrol. Three area counties, Warren, Montgomery and Greene counties, were among the state’s 10 counties with the most incidents.

Warren County was fifth with 344 incidents; Montgomery County was sixth with 337 incidents; and Greene County was ninth with 296 incidents.

While travel was expected to be at an all-time high this year, OSHP activity was down across most categories when compared to 2020. Crashes increased 9% from last year, with 758 crashes reported in 2020 and 826 reported this year, according to provisional data.

Felony arrests and warrants were down 25.8% and 42.9% respectively, and seat belt violations were down 30.1%, according to OSHP. Impaired driving saw the smallest decrease at 1%.

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