PIQUA — Troopers from the Piqua post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol are focusing their efforts on reducing speed, crashes, distracted and impaired driving, and crash causing violations. They will be primarily focusing their efforts on Interstate 75 through Shelby County during the months of February and March to address the alarming trend of high speeds and aggressive driving trends that began to increase during the pandemic in 2020, according to Piqua Post Commander Lieutenant Joseph Gebhart.

“On average, over 30,000 vehicles travel through our area on a daily basis and our ultimate goal is to ensure those motorists arrive to their destinations safely,” Gebhart said. “To do that, we will be focusing extra attention to this area to bring those aggressive driving trends down and ultimately, make the roads safer for our friends and loved ones.”

In 2019 and 2020, Shelby County experienced a total of eighteen fatal traffic crashes. Thus far in 2021, two people have tragically lost their lives due to a traffic fatality in Shelby County and 29 more fatal crashes have occurred year to date statewide.

This local initiative will run in conjunction with the 6 State Initiative Interstate Enforcement Blitz which runs the weekend of Feb. 19-21. Motorists can expect to see troopers out working hard to reduce crashes and remove impaired drivers from our interstate system.

Additional information about traffic safety can be found on the Ohio State Highway Patrol website at https://statepatrol.ohio.gov.