CLEVELAND – Ohio State Highway Patrol troopers will be back on roadways in the Cuyahoga metro area starting Oct. 15 through Nov. 16, in an ongoing initiative to reduce fatal and injury crashes in urban areas, while also apprehending wanted felons and interdicting drugs and weapons.

The Patrol is returning for the fourth time in two-years after a successful two-week initiative in July that produced 586 citations, 14 OVI arrests and 83 aggressive driving arrests. In addition to traffic safety, the metro initiatives have resulted in 16 felony cases that have included illegal narcotics, stolen vehicles and concealed weapons, such as one stop on Interstate 480 when a suspect was pulled over for excessive speed in a construction zone which resulted in the trooper confiscating a pound of marijuana and more than 100 ecstasy pills. In another stop troopers arrested a motorist for OVI and operating a motor vehicle without a valid license and later found a loaded .22 handgun and marijuana pipe.

The ongoing Cuyahoga County Metropolitan Initiative (CCMI) uses a combination of high-visibility enforcement, specialized computer mapping, and a strategic public information campaign to promote traffic safety on Cuyahoga County roads. A similar and highly successful initiative was implemented in the Cincinnati metro area last year which resulted in 44 fewer fatal and injury crashes and a 40 percent reduction in alcohol-related serious crashes on Cincinnati interstates when compared to a three year average.

“Traffic crash fatalities in urban areas have increased this year across Ohio,” Colonel Richard H. Collins, Patrol superintendent said. “In the past, these metro enforcement initiatives demonstrated that concentrated enforcement efforts on metro interstates can produce meaningful declines in fatal and injury crashes. During the Patrol’s previous initiatives in Cuyahoga County fatal and injury crashes have decreased 21 percent based on provisional data.”

The CCMI was developed last year because Cuyahoga County had the most fatal crashes among all Ohio Counties, killing 68 motorists. Over the last four years Cuyahoga County has had more than 150,000 traffic crashes. More than one in four of these crashes have involved an injury or death, an average of one injury or fatal crash every 52 minutes. There have been 243 fatal crashes resulting in 264 deaths in the past four years on Cuyahoga County roadways.

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Note to editors: To coordinate a ride-along, contact the Public Affairs Unit at 614-752-2792.

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