OHIO — This distracted driving awareness month, the Ohio Department of Transportation reports that distracted driving is down in the state.

What You Need To Know

  • A new report shows that distracted driving has gone down since the distracted driving law went into effect in Ohio 
  • The distracted driving law went into effect April 2023

  • The Ohio Department of Public Safety has invested money into campaigns to help prevent distracted driving 

A new report from the Cambridge Mobile Telematics shows that there was an 8% decrease in distracted driving in Ohio since the law went into effect last April.

It wasn’t until October that violators started getting tickets. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were nearly 9,000 traffic violations for distracted driving in 2023. So far this year there have been 5,000 violations. 

“We’re really excited to see that Ohio drivers are taking distracted driving seriously,” said Judy Converse, Ohio Department of Public Safety public information officer. “The new law takes distracted driving seriously. So we’re glad to see that there has been a drop.”

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is teaming up with other members of the six-state trooper project to better enforce the law on the roads. The initiative ran from April 1-8.