CLEVELAND — We are amidst the 100 deadliest days of summer, where there's a significant rise in fatal motor vehicle crashes between Memorial Day and Labor Day. This weekend, Ohio State Highway Patrol is already investigating multiple deadly crashes. One is from Saturday evening when two men on motorcycles traveling next to one another west on State Route 113 fatally crashed into each other.
Reckless driving, aggressive speeding, and not wearing seat belts have become frequent roadway behavior. Memorial Day weekend, 23 people died on Ohio highways, making it the deadliest weekend for reckless driving in the last five years.
"It's just too many people that are dying on our roadways," said Sgt. Bridget Matt, Ohio State Highway Patrol. "We are doing everything in our power to have an effect on these numbers, to decrease these numbers."
The City of Cleveland is experiencing similar problems. This year there's been a 14% increase in drivers not wearing their seat belts and a 6% increase in speeding citations.
"Speeding is a major problem across the entire city," said Michael Polensek, Ward 8 Councilman. "People just going through traffic signals, not stopping, stop signs, school zones."
When News 5 spoke to Councilman Polensek just days ago about rising homicide rates in Cleveland, Polensek said he believes due to the police shortage, unchecked reckless driving is one of the contributing factors to the spike in overall crime.
"There's no substitute for men and women in blue patrolling our neighbors, and if you don't have them, that's a major problem," Polensek added.
As part of the city of Cleveland's summer crime reduction plan announced over a week ago, Cleveland police are now relying heavily on the Ohio State Highway Patrol to assist with traffic enforcement efforts.
"It's great when we can come together and work together with other agencies and partners to make a difference in those communities and for those residents," Matt said.
For drivers, enhanced enforcement will show up in a variety of ways, from increased aviation monitoring to more routine traffic stops.
"We have our planes up in the air that are working speed zones where they can actually call off these aggressive drivers, these reckless operators, to our units that are on the ground to get those cars stopped and on the shoulder and issue citations," Matt said.
In 2022 372 fatal crashes between Memorial Day and Labor Day took the lives of 402 Ohioans. Thirty thousand cars were cited for driving 20 miles over the posted speed limit, and 1,300 were cited for driving over 100 miles per hour.
"That's just carelessness," said Matt. "We can't have people driving at those speeds when it becomes so deadly. You're driving a motor vehicle that is essentially a weapon at that point."
OSHP wants you to know getting a ticket is out of the care and safety of yourself and others.
"If that's through a ticket on the side of the roadway, we'd much rather have that interaction and issue a citation to someone if it, if the end result is possibly saving someone's life and not having to have that conversation on someone's doorstep that their loved one isn't returning home," Matt added.
RELATED: 2 men dead after motorcycles crash into one another in Erie County; drugs appear to be a factor
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