Area law enforcement agencies to add extra patrols over holidays

ajc.com

Local law enforcement agencies will have additional patrols over the Christmas and New Year’s holiday as more than 4.4 million Ohioans are expected to travel this year.

The Miami County Sheriff’s Office will have extra traffic enforcement through the end of the year, with the additional deputies targeting high-crash roads and areas with high rates of OVI.

“The primary goal will be to remove alcohol and drug impaired drivers from county roadways,” the sheriff’s office said. “There is usually an increase in alcohol consumption over the holidays, which combined with driving can be deadly.”

A grant from the Ohio Traffic Safety Office will fund the overtime for deputies and cover some of the fuel costs.

The Darke County Sheriff’s Office will also have additional deputies on patrol over the next two weeks.

Deputies have noticed more speeding on Darke County’s busier roads, according to the sheriff’s office. So far this year, there have been 195 injury crash and nine fatalities.

“At 55 miles per hour a vehicle covers 80.6 feet in one second,” the sheriff’s office said. “You can cover the distance of over half a football field in two seconds.”

There have been 250,185 crashes in Ohio this year, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Of those crashes 1,146 were fatal and 5,970 resulted in serious injuries.

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