OHIO — As part of a six-state partnership focused on distracted driving enforcement during the first week of April, 1,255 Ohio drivers were charged with distracted driving, according to an Ohio State Highway Patrol (OSHP) press release.

What You Need To Know

  • As part of a six-state partnership focused on distracted driving enforcement during the first week of April, 1,255 Ohio drivers were charged with distracted driving

  • Ohio had the highest count by far of the participating enforcement agencies

  • The 6-State Trooper Project, in total, netted 1,895 citations during the week-long high-enforcement period

Ohio had the highest count by far of the participating enforcement agencies. The 6-State Trooper Project, in total, netted 1,895 citations during the week-long focused-enforcement period.

Here’s the breakdown in violations noted by each participating agency:

Lt. Ray Santiago with the OSHP, when asked about the significantly higher amount of citations in Ohio, said there's a lot of unknowns. Some states, he said, have different laws that can make it hard to enforce.

He said Ohio's new distracted driving laws that officially went into effect in April of last year, with enforcement beginning last October following a six-month grace period, allow the department to be proactive in this type of enforcement.

Including the OSHP, the project includes the following agencies: the Indiana State Police, Kentucky State Police, Michigan State Police, Pennsylvania State Police and West Virginia State Police.

“The 6-State Trooper Project is a multi-state law enforcement partnership aimed at providing combined and coordinated law enforcement and security services in the areas of highway safety, criminal patrol and intelligence sharing,” the release reads.

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