State Highway Patrol increases presence Thanksgiving weekend

ZANESVILLE, Ohio – AAA Zanesville released a statement predicting this year as having the highest travel numbers since Thanksgiving of 2005. More than 2.1 million Ohioans are planning to travel between Wednesday November 22, 2017 and Sunday November 26, 2017.

Ohio State Highway Patrol Zanesville Post’s Lieutenant Matt Boyd said Wednesday night before Thanksgiving has become one of the biggest nights for drinking. So the Ohio State Highway Patrol will have increased presence on the roadways.

“Hopefully if people see this and know that we’re out there they’ll think about it make a wise decision to either stay sober, get someone that’s sober to drive them, or stay where it is they’re drinking,” Lt. Boyd said. “You know at least plan ahead and have some sort of plan in place, so they don’t have to deal with us.”

According to AAA Zanesville, last year on Thanksgiving weekend in Ohio, nine people died from crashes. Five of those fatalities were due to impaired driving and six were due to being unbuckled.

“Muskingum, Coshocton, Licking, Guernsey, Perry, and Morgan Counties there were 96 crashes with 35 people injured and miraculously last year we had no fatalities in this area,” Lt. Boyd said. “So when you consider the interstate and everything that’s pretty spectacular that we didn’t have any fatalities.”

Lt. Boyd wants drivers to obey the laws, be patient, and observant while driving. Statistically, about 400 to 500 people in the United States will die because of crashes just on Thanksgiving weekend.

“That’s 400 to 500 people who are not going to enjoy Christmas, because of something that occurred during the Thanksgiving holiday or a family is going to be without those people and no one ever expects that,” said Lt. Boyd.