SANDUSKY, Ohio — The Ohio State Highway Patrol is patterning with the Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) to launch a distracted driving safety corridor on a section of State Route 2 in Erie County.
The 21-mile stretch of SR 2 between State Route 4 and State Route 60 is being designated as a distracted driving safety corridor.
From 2016 to 2020, this section of SR 2 had 701 crashes, with 124 resulting in injuries and six resulting in deaths. Since 2019, 25 of those 701 crashes were linked to distracted driving.
Drivers will see more troopers on the roads and ODOT signage along the stretch of highway to reduce crashes.
Last year in Ohio, 29 people lost their lives and 3,880 were injured in 10,983 crashes because of distracted driving.
Sending or receiving a text message takes a driver’s eyes off the road for an average of 4.6 seconds, the equivalent of driving the length of an entire football field when traveling 55 mph.
Distracted driving is defined as any non-driving activity with the potential to distract a person from the primary task of driving and increase the risk of crashing.
RELATED: Cuyahoga County leads Ohio in distracted driving crashes since 2019
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