ODOT Announces Highway Safety Improvement Plan

The Ohio Depart­ment of Trans­porta­tion says it plans to improve the U.S. Route 24 cor­ri­dor in Pauld­ing, Defi­ance and Henry coun­ties. The announce­ment yes­ter­day, comes fol­low­ing a num­ber of acci­dents which have occurred at the at-grade inter­sec­tions along the route.

Among the planned changes are the place­ment of video cam­eras at two inter­sec­tions in Pauld­ing County. The cam­eras will be tem­porar­ily installed at the inter­sec­tions of 24 and county roads 87 and 143 Oct. 14 and will begin record­ing imme­di­ately for one week. Offi­cials say the cam­eras are intended to pro­vide valu­able insight into how dri­vers on U.S. 24 and those trav­el­ing through the inter­sec­tions are nego­ti­at­ing their move­ments dur­ing both day and night­time hours, and help offi­cials see what road­way con­di­tions or dri­ver behav­iors could be con­tribut­ing to the occur­rence of acci­dents.

The inter­sec­tions were cho­sen for video­ing because of the num­ber of acci­dents and fatal­i­ties which have occurred at each of them. From 2010 through June of 2014, six acci­dents occurred at County Road 143 with three fatal­i­ties result­ing. At County Road 87, four acci­dents occurred with three fatal­i­ties result­ing.

Other safety improve­ments are also planned for the high­way corridor.