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New Dashboard Tracks Distracted Driving Crashes In Ohio

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The Ohio State Highway Patrol has started tracking distracted driving cases on a new public dashboard.

It’s not just people using cell phones who are distracted. The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Lt. Craig Cvetin said they’ve documented accidents involving people tuning out while adjusting their radio or dealing with kids in the back seat. He said the number of incidents continue to climb. 

“From 2016 to 2020, there were 195 fatal crashes that resulted in 212 deaths in Ohio alone that were related to distracted driving," Cvetin said.

And he says that number is low because officers often don’t know what people were doing before the crash happened. 

The new distracted driving dashboard can be viewed at distracteddrivingdashboard.ohio.gov.

Copyright 2021 The Statehouse News Bureau. To see more, visit The Statehouse News Bureau.

Jo Ingles is a professional journalist who covers politics and Ohio government for the Ohio Public Radio and Television for the Ohio Public Radio and Television Statehouse News Bureau. She reports on issues of importance to Ohioans including education, legislation, politics, and life and death issues such as capital punishment.