Aubrey Woods, the Butler County safe communities coordinator with the nonprofit safety council of southwestern Ohio, said summer months result in higher numbers of crashes and this year is on par with previous years’ data.
Butler County has had roughly 15 fatal crashes for the year, which is similar to last year. There has been an increased use in marijuana before driving.
“We don’t know if it’s an exact correlation or not,” Woods said, “but the discussion that marijuana is legally recreational now could be [why] people are feeling a little bit more confident using and getting behind the wheel.”
Fatalities in April, May and June included a motorcyclist wearing a helmet, a pedestrian who was struck while lying on a roadway, a driver using a hand-held communication device, a double fatality where the driver was going 77 miles per hour in a 35 mph zone and two crashes involving failure to stop at a stop sign.
Of the seven crashes where a victim had the opportunity to wear a safety belt, six of them did not, according to the report.
“[The crash reports] are really important because that lets our traffic safety partners get an idea of how we can make our roads safer for the people in each county that we’re serving,” Woods said.
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