There have been 142,257 crashes in Ohio so far this year, resulting in 664 deaths, according to the Ohio Transportation Safety Administration's crash statistics dashboard.
CLEVELAND — The National Transportation Safety Board has called motor vehicle crashes a public health crisis, and Cleveland's surgeon general agrees with that declaration.
NTSB Chairman Jennifer Homendy was in Toledo last Friday to investigate three consecutive crashes on the Ohio Turnpike that killed four people.
“More than 40,000 people have died on our nation's roads,” Gov. Homendy said at a press conference. “We are in the middle of a public health crisis. More than 1,200 Ohioans die on Ohio roads every year.”
There have been 142,257 crashes in Ohio so far this year, resulting in 664 fatalities, according to the Ohio Traffic Safety Administration's crash statistics dashboard. That compares to 154,414 crashes so far in 2023.
On Tuesday, 3News asked Cleveland Health Commissioner David Margolius if he agreed with the NTSB chairman's statement, and he said he did.
“Motor vehicle crashes are absolutely a public health crisis,” he said. “When you ask, 'What are the leading causes of death?', particularly for Cleveland's children, motor vehicle crashes — vehicles colliding with other vehicles, vehicles colliding with stationary objects, vehicles colliding with pedestrians and bicyclists — are one of the leading causes of death in Cleveland. Last year, about 160 people died from homicide. In that same time period, between 60 and 80 people died from motor vehicle accidents.”
Margolius shared the solutions he has promoted.
“Speed is an issue,” he said, “so on the one hand we're asking people to slow down, but on the other hand we're trying to change the built environment so that it makes sense to go slower. Whether that's putting speed tables around town, narrowing a three-lane highway to two or one lane, building protected pedestrian paths and protected bike lanes, better and more visible crosswalks, better and more understandable traffic lights, these are all interventions in the built environment to save lives.”
According to statistics from the Ohio Traffic Safety Administration, there have been 12,928 accidents in Cuyahoga County so far this year, resulting in 67 fatalities. About 90% of those accidents were speed-related, about 25% were drunk driving-related, and the remaining quarter were distraction-related.
