BY THE NUMBERS
2,384 OVI arrests by state troopers this year in a six-county area, from Butler to Clark
1,832 OVI arrests in those six counties from 11 p.m. to 4 a.m.
1,303 OVI arrests on Saturday or Sunday, 55 percent of the total
44 OVI arrests in the 5-hour window from 7 a.m. to noon
Source: Ohio State Highway Patrol
For Sgt. Sean Wickman, getting a drunken driver off the road is one of the most important things a highway patrol trooper can do.
“That trooper goes home knowing he possibly saved someone’s life,” said Wickman, of the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Hamilton post. “They may never have made it home, or worse injured someone else, if they had not been stopped. They may be an angry, belligerent drunk, but at least they are alive.”
There is no shortage of OVI offenders in Butler and Warren counties. Through Nov. 9, troopers have arrested 585 people in Butler County for OVI and 466 in Warren County, according to the state highway patrol. Those numbers are up significantly in Warren County from a year ago when there were 345 people arrested for OVI.
Though the number of arrests is down slightly in Butler County — there were 612 in 2013 — Wickman said troopers make arrests there daily and usually on every shift. He said it can be frustrating when troopers encounter repeat offenders.
“It think we need stronger OVI laws and less reduction of charges in court,” Wickman said, who believes people don’t take the violation seriously.
State troopers are cracking down on those who get behind the wheel while intoxicated, particularly during the holiday season. Troopers are taking advantage of technology to determine where patrolling resources are needed to keep the motoring public safe. Mapping resources are available that can track the number of OVI-related crashes and arrests, said Lt. Clint Arnold, commander of the patrol’s Hamilton post .
“It is really useful for planning enforcement and checkpoints,” Arnold said. “The turn around time is quick. We can track where fatal crashes are happening, where there have been issues with OVI violations or just speeding and seat belt violations.”
A Journal-News examination of OVI arrests in Butler County through Nov. 9 showed several hot spots, including Ohio 4 (Dixie Highway) from Ohio 275 to downtown Hamilton where more than 170 OVI arrests have take place. Other hot spots are Interstate 75 from 275 to Ohio 63 in Monroe with more that 80 OVI arrest and along the Ohio 122 corridor in Middletown from I-75 to Ohio 4 where more than 75 OVI arrests were made.
Arnold said the volume of traffic and the density of the population in an area effect the OVI arrest numbers — not necessarily the businesses in the area that serve alcohol.
“Route 4 is the busiest state route in Butler County, and it carries a lot of traffic for people coming to and from their home” after possibly consuming alcohol, Arnold said.
Most OVI arrests occur in a five-hour window from 7 a.m. to noon, records show. Troopers in Butler, Warren, Montgomery, Greene, Clark and Miami counties have made nearly 2,400 OVI arrests this year. Nearly 1,700 of the arrests have been made between midnight and 4 a.m.
“Our night troopers are efficient in what they do,” Arnold said, noting troopers working the night shift are focused on OVI enforcement as well as other criminal violations.
Butler County area courts handled 494 OVI cases last year and Middletown had 454 cases, according to court statistics.
Troopers say the OVI patrols do more than bring in ticket revenue; they keep potential killers off the road.
Last year, Butler County registered 7 OVI related fatal crashes, down from 13 in 2012. Warren County had 7 OVI crashes in 2013, which is down just one from 2012. Statewide, there were 309 such crashes, killing 341 people.
Nationally, alcohol-impaired driving fatalities declined by 21 percent from 2003 to 2012, according to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Wickman knows how serious drinking and driving can be. He recalled a multiple fatal crash a few years ago just before Christmas on I-75 near Franklin that killed a father who left a Christmas party along with his young son and passengers in the vehicle he hit.
“You see a dead 6-year-old, see the Christmas presents in the car and smell the alcohol, then you know just how serious it is,” Wickman said.
Holiday warning
The most OVI arrests in the region occur, predictably, on the weekends, with 72 percent coming on Friday, Saturday or Sunday, the newspaper’s examination found.
The date that has yielded the most OVI arrests this year was Aug. 30 — the Saturday of Labor Day weekend — when 32 people were arrested in the six-county region. The second-most arrests were made on May 25, the Sunday before Memorial Day, when 26 drivers were stopped.
Sometimes, though, the roads are unexpectedly quiet. That was the case on a Thursday night earlier this month when the Browns routed the Bengals in a nationally televised football game.
“We were thinking that night might have been a busy night, but I think people were so depressed they went home early,” said Sgt. Jerod Keyes, night supervisor at the Dayton Post.
While Montgomery County, the largest of the six counties analyzed, has the most OVIs, Warren County has the highest rate of arrests among the driving-age population. Warren County had 27.7 OVI arrests for every 10,000 residents age 16 or over, followed by Clark County with 23.7 and Greene County with 22 and Butler with 20.1.
The data reflects a number of factors, including the size and population of the county, the density of traffic and drinking establishments and the aggressiveness of law enforcement.
“If you have aggressive and more-versed OVI officers that go after them harder, then your numbers go up,” said Lt. Matt Hamilton, commander of the Lebanon post in Warren County. He said an increase in staff also helped boost arrests.
The highway patrol will increase its presence this week, which is one of the busiest driving weeks of the year. It’s also one of the deadliest. Fatalities involving OVI drivers during the Thanksgiving holiday period numbered 203 nationwide in 2012, according to the NHTSA. That was more than any other holiday, including New Year’s (159).
Lt. Mark Nichols, Dayton Post commander, said troopers try to stay more visible during holiday weeks. Also, more overtime is made available.
“The high-travel weekends we try to pull as many units as we can to put on the road for high visibility,” he said. “With high visibility comes more enforcement and the potential for us to get a hold of that impaired driver and make an arrest before it turns into an injury crash or fatal crash.”
Sobriety tests
Keyes’ arrest rate varies depending on how much time he spends on the road. He’ll be out there this week, but you won’t see him parked outside a strip club looking to pluck partiers as they pull out of the parking lot. That’s not how it’s done.
“That’s entrapment; that’s not who we are,” he said. “Because of the area we work in, I’m behind a lot of people near bars that I don’t stop. You need probable cause.
“If they’re not doing anything, they’re not doing anything. What’s to say that person didn’t go to a bar to pick up a friend who was drinking? You wait and allow them to give you some kind of violation, and then you make your assessment.”
As a reporter rode with Keyes on a recent Friday night, he pulled over about 30 motorists for a variety of reasons, including burned-out headlights and tail lights, improper turns and swerving into an adjacent lane.
someone is impaired, they will conduct field sobriety tests. After pulling over one driver, Keyes gave an alphabet test (G to X), a counting test (68 to 43), a one-leg-stand test and a walk-and-turn test. He also can give a field breathalyzer test if a driver gives consent.
Keyes said some people practice the tests and results are subjective. That is not the case with the horizontal gaze nystagmus test, which reveals the involuntary jerking of the eyes if someone has been drinking.
“As you’re moving that pen, their eyes are going to bounce back and forth,” Keyes said. “That’s not normal. You can’t fake that.”
If a suspect fails the tests, they can be arrested. The official breathalyzer test is administered at a police station, and a blood-alcohol content of 0.08 percent is considered to be over the limit.
Keyes said the blood-alcohol content of most people generally drops by 0.015 every hour after they stop drinking.
In the end, it’s a trooper’s judgment whether to take someone to jail. Excuses don’t often work, but Keyes said sometimes the best decision is to let a friend or relative take an impaired driver home.
“One of the hardest that I’ve ever had was a guy who had just lost his wife and he was out drinking. That’s how he was dealing with it,” Keyes said. “I still had to take some type of enforcement action, but I didn’t take him to jail. He was really struggling with the entire situation. It was a tough one.”
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