While one fatality is one too many, fifteen in six months was the call for action for the Findlay post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol to stop this disturbing trend.
From January 1st to June 25th, they saw 15 people died on Hancock and Hardin County roadways. A majority of the crashes that resulted in serious injuries or fatalities were caused by drivers that failed to stop at stop signs or red lights. Since then, troopers have been stepping up enforcement looking for violators during the peak times that the accidents were occurring to avoid any other deadly crashes. Their efforts paid off because since the end of June they have not seen one other failure to yield fatal crash in their coverage area.
“Generally speaking if someone doesn’t stop at a stop sign or runs a red light, that type of crash is most likely to lead to a fatality,” says Sgt. Justin Powell of the Findlay OSHP post. “So stop at stop signs, stop at red lights, wait until it’s clear, and that will decrease our fatalities and keep everyone safer,” said Sgt. Justin Powell, Ohio State Highway Patrol Findlay Post.
Troopers will continue to watch out for Failure to Yield violations when they are on patrol and the post plans on doing another target enforcement of the violation in the future.
