CLEVELAND — The National Safety Transportation Board is calling car crashes a public health crisis, and the director of the Cleveland Department of Public Health is agreeing with that declaration.
NTSB Chair Jennifer Homendy was in Toledo this past Friday to investigate a series of three separate crashes on the Ohio Turnpike that killed four people.
"Over 40,000 people are dying on our nation's roads," Homendy said during a press conference. "We're in the midst of a public health crisis. In Ohio, over 1,200 people annually are dying on Ohio roads."
According to the Ohio Traffic Safety Office's crash statistics dashboard, there have been 142,257 crashes so far this year in Ohio, leading to 664 fatalities. This is compared to 154,414 crashes year-to-date in 2023.
On Tuesday, 3News asked Cleveland Health Director David Margolius if he agrees with the NTSB chair's statement, and he said yes.
"Car crashes absolutely are a crisis of public health," he said. "When we look at 'What are the top causes of death?' particularly in children in Cleveland, car crashes — either cars hitting other cars, cars hitting immobile objects, cars hitting pedestrians or cyclists — that is one of the top causes of death in Cleveland. Last year, we had about 160 people die from homicides. During that same time, somewhere between 60 and 80 people died from a car crash."
Dr. Margolius shared the solutions that he's been pushing for.
"It's the speed that they're going," he expressed. "So on the one hand, we're asking people to slow down; but on the other hand, we're trying to change the built environment so that it makes more sense to go slowly. Whether that's speed tables that we're putting all over the city or it's narrowing streets from three-lane freeways down to two or one lane; building protected walking paths; protected bike lanes, better, more visible crosswalks; better, more easy to understand traffic lights — all of those are built environment interventions meant to save lives."
Looking back at the Ohio Traffic Safety Office's stats, there have been 12,928 crashes in Cuyahoga County so far this year, with 67 fatalities. About 90% of those crashes were speed-related, roughly 25% involved alcohol, and another quarter of them were distraction-related.