Portage County Fatal Crash Review Board held a quarterly meeting on January 12th. There were no fatal crashes that occurred during the months of October through December, 2023. In 2022, one fatal crash occurred during the same three-month period.
In 2023, there were 19 fatal crashes and 19 related deaths in Portage County. The fatal crashes occurred between January 23rd and September 28th. This year we had no fatal crashes occur during the holidays. The leading contributing causes of fatal crashes in Portage County this year were “driving off roadway” and “failure to yield,” with five crashes due to each. Other prominent contributing causes included “unsafe speeds,” “left of center,” and “improper turns”.
In 2022, there were 16 fatal crashes and 18 related deaths – all occurring between January 27th and October 5th.
The Fatal Review Board is a requirement of Safe Communities (a program of Portage County Health District) and responsible for reviewing fatal crashes, identifying trends, and recommending countermeasures. In 2023, 37% of at-fault drivers involved in fatal crashes were over the age of 55 and 16% were under the age of 24. 17 of the 19 crashes occurred on rural roads. Fatal crashes occurred most frequently on Mondays, accounting for 32% of the total crashes, and second most frequently on Fridays, accounting for 26%. Of the traffic related deaths in 2023, 15 were drivers, 2 were passengers, and 2 pedestrians. There were five fatal crashes involving motorcyclists, four where the rider was at-fault and one where the rider was not-at-fault. There were also three fatal crashes involving commercial vehicles where the commercial drivers were not-at-fault. Although not all toxicology results have been received, at least three fatal crashes involved drugs and six fatal crashes involved alcohol; the average BAC (blood alcohol content) for the year was 0.2.
With four consecutive years of over 17 traffic-related deaths, the Fatal Review Board recommended continuous traffic safety education and enforcement of Ohio traffic laws including distracted driving, seat belt usage, sharing the roadways, and impaired driving.
