Drivers can keep an eye out for flashing signs around school zones that begin blinking half an hour before school starts and half an hour after classes let out for the day. During these restricted hours, school zones have a speed limit of 20 miles per hour. Officers and others are keeping a close watch of these areas to help keep students safe as they head to and leave school every day.

Leaders from the Lima-Allen County area gathered in order to urge drivers to practice safe driving habits as traffic is expected to increase due to students returning to school.  Last year, 176 pedestrians died from traffic crashes in Ohio, including 14 children.

Even though this is Work Zone Safety Week, it is a driver’s responsibility to make sure that the construction workers and other motorists make it home safe all year round. Last year, there were nearly 4,800 crashes in work zones, 35% occurred when construction crews were working. Of all the crashes, just over 1,000 people were injured and 29 were killed in a work zone. But with more contractors getting ready to tackle road projects, ODOT wants to issue a friendly reminder to keep the work zone safe.

16 swimmers have qualified to compete in the Great Lakes zone swim meet in Canton. The Barracudas will swim against 600 swimmers from around Ohio, plus Indiana, Kentucky, Michigan, and West Virginia. The Lima swimmers range from eleven to eighteen years old and they have been working for the last six months to hit the qualifying times. This will be Cece Schaaf’s first time at the zones, where she will be competing in six events this weekend, including the 50 freestyle.

The state of Ohio is no stranger to crashes involving students 18 and younger: numbers from the Ohio Department of Transportation show that over the last five years, over 4,500 crashes involving pedestrians 18 and younger have happened, resulting in 126 deaths. And so to help prevent a tragedy like this from happening close to home, those with Lima City Schools urge drivers to be patient with the extra traffic and to not pass school buses that are picking up or dropping kids off.

Troopers with the Highway Patrol will be out watching for unsafe driving near work zones, as part of National Work Zone Awareness Week. They’re prepared to pull over drivers that aren’t following the law when it comes to driving through an active work zone. According to OSHP, here in Ohio, there have been over 600 work zone crashes in 2021 so far. Three of those crashes were fatal. While that’s a statewide statistic, these accidents do happen closer to home.

Construction areas on highways are a common sight in Ohio before the weather gets too cold, and that means that workers are on the roads. Unfortunately, crashes in these sites do happen - and that's why the Ohio Department of Transportation and the Highway Patrol are teaming up to make work zones safer around the state, including in Allen County between Bluffton and Beaverdam on I-75.