New Year’s Eve was quiet throughout the Miami Valley, according to local police departments and the Ohio State Highway Patrol.

There were relatively few OVI arrests, and the Dayton Daily News received no reports of traffic fatalities directly attributed to drunken driving on the holiday.

The last night of 2011 was representative of a year that saw a statewide decrease in traffic fatalities, as compared to each of the two previous years.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol said there were 970 confirmed fatalities during 2011, and 49 more deaths that have not yet been confirmed as traffic fatalities, making the possible total 1,019. The unconfirmed deaths included five from this weekend.

But, even if all of the unconfirmed deaths are a result of drunken driving, the totals are still down from the 1,080 traffic fatalities that occured in 2010 and the 1,022 in 2009.

There were 10 traffic deaths recorded in the three-day New Year’s holiday period in 2010, according to the OSP. Seven of those deaths were linked to impaired drivers.

The OSP said it sees a correlation between the decrease in deaths and its stepped-up enforcement targeting impaired drivers. Troopers made more than 23,000 arrests in 2011 for operating a vehicle under the influence of alcohol or illegal drugs, which is an increase of 1,500 OVI arrests compared to 2010.

On Saturday night and into early Sunday, the Montgomery County post of the OSP reported making seven drunken driving arrests.

The Miami County OSP post picked up three people for driving under the influence, while just one alcohol-related arrest was reported by the OSP post in Warren County. The Greene County OSP post said it had no OVI reports on Saturday night.

Police departments from Beavercreek to Vandalia and down through Franklin also reported an uneventful New Year’s Eve, with few drunken driving arrests.

In Kettering, police held an OVI Task Force on Friday night and arrested some drunken drivers, but the department reported zero OVI arrests on Saturday night.

Kettering police said they chose Friday for the targeted enforcement because, in recent years, they have seen fewer drivers out on New Year’s Eve.

“People are being smarter about it than they used to be,” Kettering Lt. Craig Moore said Sunday.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.