WARREN– Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Daniel Morrison of the Warren Post said they’ve investigated 17 out of the 20 fatal crashes that occurred in Trumbull County in 2023.

Of those crashes, 12 of the fatal crashes were related to either alcohol or drug impairment, Morrison said.

Breaking down the demographics, he said nine of those crashes involved people over the age of 55 and the other three involving people under 24.

“OVI’s have been a problem with our fatal crashes for last year and the year before as well. So it’s definitely something that the public as a whole could improve on,” Morrison said.

In 2022 the OVI related crashes were at 13 down two from 2021’s 15.

“Our main focus to reduce fatalities is through traffic enforcement through our traffic stops. But again, we also take an education approach to the public,” Morrison said. “We do a lot of community events and public speaking so like I said, the goal is and then also look at the engineering aspect of it as well. So we attack those three areas.”

Morrison explained that there are several “special programs” that he says brings troopers together to focus on specific areas that have been “identified as a problem and basically saturate that area.”

Those include programs revolving around, OVIs, criminal patrol, distracted driving, seatbelts, commercial vehicle violations.

WARREN

Morrison said Warren Police investigated two fatal crashes of the 20. The only other fatal crash not investigated by OSHP was one fatal crash in Girard.

60 of Warren’s crashes were alcohol related with 43 of those resulting in injuries and two of them being fatal.

A full report on the Warren police department’s traffic/fatal crash statistics have not been completed at the time of reporting.

Morrison said they’ll typically ask local police departments to send their crash stats to then composite into a preliminary fatal crash notification which then gets sent to Columbus to track the traffic stats, including fatal crashes in the county.

COLLABORATIVE EFFORT

Quarterly, Morrison meets with members from Trumbull County Safe Communities, Ohio Department of Transportation and the Trumbull County Engineer’s Office to examine every single fatal crash to determine, “If there’s anything we could do engineering wise to improve the area,” he said.

But oftentimes, Morrison said the most common issue is not one of engineering issues but more often driver-error related.

Last week, he says his post met with ODOT to recommend intersections that could maybe use additional signage, things he hopes stands out more by incorporating flashing yellow or red lights.

“We don’t believe that we’re gonna fix the problems by just issuing a bunch of citations,” Morrison said. “That’s just one piece of the pie is trying to change driver behavior through enforcement. But if there’s something that we could recommend or do in partnership with ODOT to recommend different safety features at intersections, we are going to make that recommendation.”

Currently, he said an email sent to him from ODOT said the organization is studying U.S. State Route 82 at Niles-Vienna Road; U.S. State 305 at North Park Avenue.

Morrison said ODOT had also expressed plans to complete a “formal safety study” later this year at the intersection of 422 and U.S. State Route 305 in Southington, where he says a fatal crash occurred late last year involving an OVI-related crash.

The incident involved a former Pennsylvania State Trooper, Joseph Yuran, 55, of Sharpsville, who is currently facing aggravated vehicular homicide and OVI charges in the deadly crash that claimed the life of 23-year-old Tyler Richmond.

The 23-year-old man was pronounced dead at the scene, the patrol report states. Yuran’s blood-alcohol content was recorded as .196, above the legal limit of .08 for drunken driving in Ohio.

Yuran will stand trial in the matter on Feb 5 in Trumbull County Court of Common Pleas court.

PEDESTRIAN / CAR FATALS

In 2023, Morrison said they had three pedestrian fatal crashes all within eight days of each other in February.

The first being a 44-year-old Cleveland woman whom a report says was walking across the U.S. State Route 422 just east of state route 305.

The spot is near the spot where Christine Pettry, 42, of Garrettsville was fatally struck by two vehicles in August 2022 while crossing the U.S. Route 422 in Southington Township. She was walking in the westbound lanes of U.S. 422 near Leiby Osborne Road when she was struck by a car and again by a truck.

67-year-old Sally Mae Hubbert was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Hospital in Youngstown from injuries she received during a crash along the U.S. State Route 169 near Glenwood Avenue in Weathersfield township.

Reports state that Hubbert was walking north across state Route 169, when she was struck eastbound by a 47-year-old woman driving a 2017 Toyota Camry.

Boardman resident James Ditallo, 88, was walking southbound when a report states that he stopped and stood in the lane and was struck by a vehicle driven by 55-year-old state Route 7 near state Route 88.

“Families, if they feel like somebody in their family is unable to drive safely anymore, they can fill out a form with the DMV and require their loved one to retake their driver’s test,” Morrison said.

The form he said is not based solely on age but also could be “physical, mental, or visual impairment.”

PROBLEM AREAS

Morrison said he assigns several troopers to an area and then contacts local police departments to inform them to partner up if available.

The post will also focus on problem areas by sending special units to patrol areas common for specific traffic violations.

“We plan those throughout the year as well and then we also have squads for criminal patrol where we go out and look for violations of weapon and drug violations.

Using statistics from the Trumbull County Health Board on overdose in the county Morrison said they’ll also target areas where overdosing is a frequent concern.

“Our troopers get extensive training on criminal patrol indicators to look for on the stop,” Morrison said.

On the heels of the passage of issue two which legalized marijuana recreationally he said troopers will go through specialized training for marijuana impairment.

STATEWIDE

Bridget Matt, public information officer for the Ohio State Highway Patrol, said OSP statistics show there were 1,250 people killed in 1,159 fatal crashes in Ohio in 2023, though those numbers are considered tentative until 30 days after the date of the last fatal crash of the year.

By comparison, there were 1,275 people killed in 1,180 fatal crashes in Ohio in 2022. Those numbers are considered complete.

That means the number of the people who died in fatal crashes in Ohio dropped by 25 in 2023 compared to 2022, and the number of fatal crashes in Ohio dropped by 21 during that same time period.

TEEN DRIVING

The Warren post commander said they take a “proactive approach” to address teenage driving which he said has seen a decline over the years in teen-related crashes.

Morrison said there are several programs dedicated to the issue, including SMASH, short for ‘Students Making A Safer Highway.’

The commander explained members of the Ohio State Extension Office’s 4-H Youth Development partnered with the post as a trooper leads a discussion educating on traffic safety topics.

“The students get together and come up with their own program that they’re going to go back to their school and present a program to them,” Morrison said.

In 2023, he said teen related crashes dropped 10 percent and there was a 10 percent drop in 2022.

Morrison also delved into discussing a diversion program that troopers put on monthly for first-time traffic offenders that get a citation in the county.

“For a first time offender the magistrate judge could give them an option to go to the program and if completed successfully they could get their violation waived.”

DISTRACTED DRIVING LAW

Last year the county had 95 distracted-driving crashes with property damage only, 38 such crashes with a suspected minor injury, 17 such crashes with a possible injury and six such crashes with a suspected serious injury.

There were no fatal accidents in either county in 2023 attributed to distracted driving.

Distracted driving laws were strengthened in 2023 as it is now illegal in most circumstances for those in Ohio to hold or use an electronic device while driving.

Morrison called the law’s passage a “great step in the right direction,” to combat distracted driving.

“We still have a lot of crashes where the causes are people rear ending one another driving off the roadway for no particular reason. So it remains a problem for our troopers that we’re tasking them this year to step up and enforce that law,” Morrison said.