(WKBN) — Many people were on the road for Memorial Day weekend travels, which resulted in a record number of deaths for the weekend according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
OSHP is reporting 22 crashes resulting in 23 deaths on Ohio’s roadways during the 2023 Memorial Day weekend, according to provisional statistics. This is the highest number of traffic fatalities in Ohio since 2020 when 20 individuals were killed. The four-day reporting period began Friday, May 26 and ran through Monday, May 29.
While the number of fatalities was up, other areas of data showed improvement, such as distracted driving incidents (42% decrease), seatbelt citations (30% decrease) and OVI arrests (19.2% decrease).
During the reporting period, state troopers made 19,980 traffic enforcement contacts, including 399 impaired driving arrests, 233 drug arrests and 2,797 safety belt citations. In addition, OSHP made 10,463 non-enforcement contacts including 2,107 motorist assists.
OSHP reports 544 incidents in Trumbull County, 632 incidents in Mahoning County and 233 incidents in Columbiana County, including one fatality.
