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ST. CLAIRSVILLE -- The Ohio State Highway Patrol reported steady traffic and few incidents locally during the July 4 holiday weekend.
Sgt. Tim Cunningham at the St. Clairsville post that covers Belmont and Monroe counties discussed traffic volume from Friday night through Monday.
"For the most part, traffic was kind of hit-and-miss, up-and-down. There would be times where it was rather slow traffic. We didn't have any fatalities in our area here," he said.
"We had a total number of 536 traffic stops. ... Of the 536, 341 were enforcement stops, which means we issued a citation ticket," he said. "Of the 341, seven were OVI (operating a vehicle under the influence) arrests, 23 of the 341 were seat belt citations. ... Two felony arrests. ... That's either (possession of) drugs or a firearm."
Cunningham added there were three minor misdemeanor arrests and one person was picked up on a felony warrant.
"Of the 341, six were distracted driving arrests, 10 total crashes. Of the 10, two were injury, and no fatalities," Cunningham said, adding none of the injuries was very severe. "I was at one of the injury crashes and it was just from the airbag. ... The other driver was just for cautionary measures taken to the hospital."
He added there was no one day when traffic was particularly high.
"They were all pretty much the same really, as far as traffic patterns. There wasn't any one day that was worse than the other ones," Cunningham said. "It wasn't as busy as pre-COVID traffic, but I think it was similar to what last year was."
In other matters, he said activity in Harrison and Jefferson counties was similarly manageable.
"They had eight total crashes, two injuries, three OVI arrests, three felony and four misdemeanor," Cunningham said. "Nothing real big."
For the remainder of summer, the patrol is preparing for the upcoming Blame My Roots Fest country music concert, set for July 14-16 at Valley View Campgrounds across from the former site of Jamboree In The Hills along U.S. 40 in the Morristown area. Before it dissolved in 2018 JITH was a source of major traffic concern. Blame My Roots has aspired to fill that musical niche but has not grown to the same level of attendance.
"As far as the Blame My Roots festival going on, we'll definitely work close with other agencies - the sheriff's department, local police department, trying to keep the area safe and the public safe. We'll definitely have extra patrols out during the festival times," Cunningham said.
"We definitely encourage the public to buckle up when they're driving and try to stay safe as they can and try to have the little ones buckled up. If they don't know the laws of child restraint, they can always go to AAA Ohio and they have all the laws and rules and regulations with child and safety restraints," he said.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol has designated Memorial Day through Labor Day as the "100 Deadliest Days of Summer" due to the prevalence of fatal crashes during this period.