Traffic deaths in Knox County have been trending lower over the last few years, and a $35,000 grant from the Ohio Department of Public Safety is intended to keep the trend in that direction.
The grant will fund the Knox County Public Health Department's Safe Communities Coalition and local traffic safety awareness activities from Oct. 1, 2020, through Sept. 30, 2021, Knox Public Health said.
“Each year brings a new set of traffic fatality trends for our count,” Elisa Frazee, Knox County Safe Communities Coalition coordinator, told the Mount Vernon News. “It’s not something that we can predict. Our yearly goal is to educate and raise awareness to these trends in hopes that it results in fewer traffic fatalities moving forward.”
In 2018, Knox County had 13 traffic fatalities, which dropped to seven in 2019. So far this year, there have been four deaths, with only two months remaining in the year.
“While Knox County has had a low number of traffic fatalities this year, the Coalition has identified several traffic trends,” Knox Public Health said in a statement.
The county noted that there have been more accidents involving motorists aged 55 and older, teen drivers and those on motorcycles.
“Failure to use a seat belt or helmet and impaired drivers together have contributed to 50% of this year’s traffic fatalities thus far,” the county said.
The Knox County Safe Communities Coalition includes local law enforcement, highway officials and other local agencies who work to promote community-based solutions to transportation safety problems.
It identifies trends and then works together to come up with solutions, Lt. Gurjit S. Grewal, commander of the Ohio State Patrol’s Mount Gilead post, told the News.
“If there is an issue we are having with teen-related crashes, then we would get together with the schools,” he said. “If it’s seat-belt related, we would go and speak to the students or we would do safety belt checks in the parking lots as people come and go.”
The coalition has spoken at senior centers when they identified issues with mature drivers, such as failure to yield, he said.
In general, speed and failure to wear seat belts are the leading safety issues in Knox County, Grewal said.
“Those are the factors that usually lead to serious crashes or fatal crashes,” he stated.
Grewal noted that in Knox County, the majority of crashes are on Highways 36, 29 and 13.
The coalition also works with the agencies to improve signage at intersections with high crash numbers, he said.
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