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April Is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month


Dear OBF Members,

I will discuss Distracted Driving during today's Vandalia Bicycle Advisory Committee meeting, and I ask that you contact your city officials regarding the need for control of distracted driving during April which is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month.

I copy below Distracted Driving information from our friend Sharon Montgomery with whom we work to control Distracted Driving in Ohio. While the House Finance Committee Chair removed Distracted Driving from the Transportation Budget Bill, we support House Bill 111 which would make Distracted Driving a Primary Offense. I am also working as a member of the Ohio Traffic Safety Council Distracted Driving Committee.

Sharon wrote:

April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. One thing we can do to help raise awareness is to address our own city councils, in person or by e-mail, depending on how each council is meeting these days. A possible statement model:

I would like [name] City Council records to indicate that April is National Distracted Driving Awareness Month. Despite the lower traffic volume in 2020, traffic fatalities were up. Law enforcement and others well-informed about traffic issues consider distracted driving to be a prominent factor in the increased fatalities.

[If appropriate*] Gov. DeWine, the Ohio Dept. of Transportation, the Ohio Dept. of Public Safety, and the Ohio State Highway Patrol are all working actively with other safety advocates [in your case, you could add "including OBF] to identify and implement solutions to this danger. While we work on this, we need all drivers to be aware of the dangers posed by diverting your attention from operating your vehicle and your surrounding circumstances to your electronic devices.

Thank you for helping to raise awareness.


*To Gahanna City Council, I preceded the sentence about the gov. et al. with:

Gahanna's own state representative, Mary Lightbody, has re-introduced her bill to give law enforcement the tools they need to stop distracted drivers before they can cause harm.

If you want to be more specific, the bill is HB 111. You might want to add the above if your own rep. is a co-sponsor:

Dist. 6 Phillip Robinson
Dist. 10 Terrence Upchurch
Dist. 14 Bride Rose Sweeney
Dist. 15 Jeffrey Crossman
Dist. 17 Adam Miller
Dist. 18 Kristen Boggs
(Dist. 19 Mary Lightbody)
Dist. 20 Richard Brown
Dist. 22 David Leland
Dist. 24 Allison Russo
Dist. 25 Dontavius Jarrells
Dist. 26 Erica Crawley
Dist. 28 Jessica Miranda
Dist. 31 Brigid Kelly
Dist. 32 Catherine Ingram
Dist. 35 Tavia Galonski
Dist. 37 Casey Weinstein
Dist. 45 Lisa Sobecki
Dist. 46 Michael Sheehy
Dist. 56 Joseph Miller
Dist. 58 Michelle Lepore-Hagan