Highway Patrol Warns Of Zero Tolerance Policy

The Ohio State High­way Patrol will be out in full force crack­ing down on impaired dri­vers the entire Fourth of July week­end, which begins Thurs­day, July 3 and ends Sun­day, July 6. Their zero-tolerance pol­icy is part of the national Drive Sober or Get Pulled Over enforce­ment cam­paign aimed at remov­ing impaired dri­vers from the road­ways.

Last Fourth of July, the Patrol made 291 OVI arrests from Tues­day, July 3 at Mid­night through Wednes­day, July 4 at 11:59 p.m. Dur­ing this time, five fatal crashes resulted in six deaths. One crash was OVI-related, result­ing in one death.

Accord­ing to the National High­way Traf­fic Safety Admin­is­tra­tion (NHTSA), in the last five years, 756 peo­ple lost their lives nation­wide in crashes involv­ing dri­vers with a BAC of .08 or more dur­ing the July Fourth hol­i­day period.

The Patrol also urges dri­vers to buckle up, as safety belts saved an esti­mated 12,174 lives nation­wide in 2012, accord­ing to NHTSA. Dur­ing the 2013 Fourth of July hol­i­day, four of the six indi­vid­u­als killed in Ohio were not wear­ing safety belts.

Motorists are encour­aged to call #677 to report impaired dri­vers or drug activity.