Ohio State Highway Patrol is increasing the pressure on OVI drivers

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – Operating a vehicle while impaired, or OVI, account for more than half of all fatal accidents in Ohio which is the driving force behind a two-week long service initiative.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is increasing patrols and maintaining a zero-tolerance policy on impaired driving with high-visibility enforcement efforts.

“We got troopers from all the area posts, they’ve gotten together for a district wide attack squad, they call it. When they’re just doing direct OVI enforcement,” Sergeant William Howard said.

In the past 5 years, more than 90,000 OVI arrests have been made with 30% being repeat offenders. The highway patrol says that taking on impaired driving is a shared responsibility and that it requires action from every driver to keep our roads safe. You can avoid OVI driving by designating a sober driver, use a rideshare service, public transit, and you can help stop OVI drivers by calling to report them.

“Call 911 or #677 to report it. We’ll get somebody out to it,” Howard said. “The state alone, they’ve had 68,000 OVI related crashes in the past 5 years and 3,500 of those result in somebody being killed”

Those of you celebrating Halloween are encouraged to stay safe and out of the drivers seat while under the influence.