OVI Task Force receives $224K grant from feds

North Ridgeville police Chief Michael Freeman announced Oct. 1 that the Ohio Department of Public Safety’s Ohio Traffic Safety Office awarded the Lorain County OVI Task Force $224,964.12 from federal traffic safety funding for federal fiscal year 2022.

The funds are to be used in part for, but not limited to, traffic safety enforcement, awareness and traffic safety education, according to a news release from Freeman.

It will cover the cost of equipment and labor to conduct checkpoints and saturation patrol in Lorain County.

The goal is to save lives and reduce injuries on Ohio’s roads through leadership and partnering efforts with others interested in traffic safety, the release said.

The grant year runs from Oct. 1 to Sept. 30, 2022.

To be eligible for the grant, a county had to experience an annual average of six or more alcoholrelated fatal crashes over a three-year period, the release said.

From January 2019 to Oct. 1, there have been 61 fatal car crashes in Lorain County, with 30 (49.2%) of them being OVI related, according to the release.

In 2021 alone, Lorain County has had 28 fatal traffic crashes, the release said.

The OVI Task Force focus is on traffic safety priority areas such as restraint use, impaired driving, motorcycle safety, distracted drivers and youthful drivers.

”These funds are critical in ensuring that we are doing everything we possibly can to keep our local community safe,” Freeman said. “Based on crash data, speed, impaired driving and seat belt use are priorities for the Lorain County OVI Task Force and we are committed to working with our partners at the state level to address this safety issue.”

With the 2021 federal traffic safety funding, the OVI Task Force made 42 OVI arrests by conducting checkpoints and working saturation patrol throughout the county from October 2020 through August 2021.

Officers also conducted nine OVI checkpoints, had 33 felony arrests and 1,055 other misdemeanor and traffic citations.

The officers have worked 1,842 hours of saturation patrol and made 2,165 traffic stops, the release said.