By DAVID DUPONT
BG Independent News
2023 was a deadly year on Wood County roads.
According to a preliminary report from Safe Communities of Wood County, 21 fatal vehicle crashes resulting in the deaths of 23 people.
That’s more than any time in the last five years – nine more than 2022, and six more than 2020, which had the second most in the five-year period.
These numbers bucked the statewide experience. Fatal crashes in Ohio were at their lowest in the five-year period, at 1030, compared to 1,244 in 2021.
The first accident of 2023 occurred in January and resulted in the death of a tractor-trailer driver. The tires from a commercial vehicle sprang loose and struck the cab of a truck behind him killing the driver.
The year ended badly with three crashes in December resulting in four deaths. On Dec.9, a young couple died when their vehicle was struck in the rear by a car allegedly traveling at a high rate of speed. The couple’s car was forced into the oncoming lane and was struck by another vehicle. The driver who rear-ended them faces charges of aggravated vehicular homicide. On Dec. 29 a Findlay man crossed into the oncoming lane on U.S. 23 in Lake Township and struck a tractor-trailer head on. The next day a Michigan woman died when she drove off Ohio 199 just north of Fostoria.
These capped an already deadly year.
“Unfortunately, there’s nothing that we can put our finger on why there are more crashes,” said Lt. Jordan Schwochow, post commander in Bowling Green for the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
There’s no pattern. Failure to yield at traffic signals, failure to main assured safe distance, and failure to stay in the lane have been factors. But that’s consistent with other years.
Nor is there a particular road that’s especially problematic. Yes, I-75 is the scene of a lot of crashes, but it also is a heavily traveled thoroughfare.
If there’s a pattern, Schwochow said, investigators have yet to find it.
What investigators do know is that the difference between a property damage accident and a fatal can be a matter of fractions of a second. “Speed can always play a factor in that,” he said.
Maybe, he said, those split seconds just broke the wrong way for county drivers this year. The county had fewer crashes resulting in serious injuries than in the past five, and other crashes did not noticeably increase.
Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn believes the problem is too many distractions for drivers.
Texting or watching a movie are obvious culprits.
Cars, he said, are just too easy to drive now. Manual transmissions are now rare. Various features take away some of the work of driving, leaving drivers bored, Wasylyshyn said.
Ironically features that are intended to make driving safer by alerting drivers if they are following too closely or leaving their lane, can cause problems, if drivers become too reliant on them. The shift to more semi-autonomous vehicles could exacerbate the problem.
The sheriff said the problem has a human solution. Just as people were encouraged to intervene if a person was going to drive after consuming alcohol, now family and friend should be vigilant about reminding them to pay attention to their driving, he said.
That’s the approach Mothers Against Drunk Driving took. And it has worked to lessen impaired operation. Now the same intervention has to take place with distracted driving.
Schwochow said of the state patrol said that the numbers year to year may fluctuate but the message remains constant. “Give yourself extra time,” Schwochow said. “Wear your seatbelt. Put your phone down.”
Don’t drive impaired.
Though no patterns have emerged in the latest uptick in fatalities, he said, the state patrol will continued to do all it can to decrease the number of fatal crashes.
