SIDNEY — Arrests by the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) in Shelby County for operating a vehicle while intoxicated (OVI) increased by more than 27 percent from 2014 to 2015.
“Intoxication” refers to drivers drunk on alcohol and those who are under the influence of drugs. Officers with the Piqua post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) made 103 such arrests last year, up from 81 in 2014.
Post Commander Lt. John Gebhart attributes the increase not so much to an increase in the number of impaired drivers on the roads as to a combined effort by the post, the Sidney Police Department and the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office to cut down on fatal accidents, including those involving OVI. In tackling that challenge, they have also cracked down on OVI drivers who have caused nonfatal crashes.
“I’m proud of what we’ve been able to do,” he said Friday.
Auglaize County saw an increase in arrests by officers with the Wapakoneta post of the OSHP from one year to the next, but the percentage was much smaller. There were 80 arrests in Auglaize County in 2014; 83 in 2015. However, Auglaize saw many more crashes due to OVI than did Shelby County in both years and the number of crashes in the northern county dropped by 33 percent from 2014 to 2015.
There were 20 OVI crashes in Auglaize County in 2015. Impaired drivers had caused 30 crashes there in 2014. In Shelby County in 2014, there were just six crashes and that number also decreased — by one — in 2015.
None of the OVI crashes in Shelby County during the last two years resulted in fatalities. There were three injury crashes here in 2014, one in 2015. There were three crashes that caused property damage in 2014 and four in 2015 in Shelby County.
The larger number of crashes brought more damaging statistics to Auglaize County. There was one fatal crash in each year there. In 2014, three people died as a result of the accident. In 2015, one person died. There were 16 injury crashes in 2014 but just half as many in 2015.
Auglaize County crashes that caused property damage numbered 13 in 2014. That number dropped to 11 last year.
Chief Deputy Jim Frye, of the Shelby County Sheriff’s Office, said that in their jurisdiction, deputies made one juvenile and 44 adult arrests for OVI in 2014 and 45 adult arrests in 2015.
He reported that of the 125 injury accidents that were investigated by the sheriff’s office in 2014, 10 were due to OVI. One of those involved a fatality. In 2015, 16 injury accidents, of 117 overall, were OVI-related, he added.
The Sidney Police Department handled 25 OVI accidents in 2014. Of those, three involved personal injury and 22 resulted in property damage. Officers made one juvenile and 121 OVI arrests that year.
OVI citations by the police department dropped to 107 in 2015: 105 adults and 2 juveniles. OVI accidents numbers dropped, too, but the severity of injury increased. One of the 23 accidents was a fatal one. Five involved personal injury and 17 caused property damage.
There are 49 Shelby Countians on the state’s OVI Habitual Offenders Registry. Those are drivers, including adults and juveniles, who have been convicted at least five times in the last 20 years on OVI charges and have at least one conviction since 2008.
Gebhart sees education as one way to address the OVI problem.
“We’ve done some really good things in the school,” he said. “Through the juvenile court and 4-H, we have a Carteens program going in Shelby County. It started this year.” The post also has done programs with the Shelby County AAA to impact youthful drivers.
“I’m a strong believer in doing strong enforcement and educational programs — reaching young drivers before they make a bad mistake,” Gebhart said.
