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Nine people died in crashes on Ohio’s roads during the New Year’s holidays

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COLUMBUS, Ohio (Statehouse News Bureau) — Thousands took to the roads over this past New Year’s holiday, and a few of those trips resulted in deadly crashes in Ohio.

An Ohio State Highway Patrol cruiser protects a crime scene in Cincinnati.
An Ohio State Highway Patrol cruiser protects a crime scene in Cincinnati. [Daniel Konik | Statehouse News Bureau]
State Highway Patrol Lt. Brice Nihiser said the stats on roadway crashes include New Year’s Eve, New Year’s Day and this past weekend. Nihiser said the nine deaths during that period is an increase over the three deaths from the New Year holiday period in 2024. But he noted that period was two days instead of the five this year.

Troopers made 238 OVI arrests, 297 arrests for distracted driving and wrote 469 safety belt tickets. Franklin County saw the most incidents – a total of 464, followed by Lorain, Mahoning and Medina counties.

Nihiser said the recent Christmas holiday period was more dangerous.

“Over the Christmas holidays, we saw more fatalities than we did over the New Year’s holiday. Over the Christmas holidays, there were 17 fatalities that were reported.”

Nihiser said there were three fatalities on Ohio’s roads over the 2024 Christmas holiday—but again, he noted that was over two days instead of the five days around Christmas in 2025.