OHP crackdown on reckless driving around semi's begins.....

A crackdown on dangerous motorists driving recklessly around semi trucks has begun in Ohio this week.

As of Wednesday, March 28th the Ohio State Highway Patrol is taking a “very aggressive approach” towards reckless motorists stemming from some newly released statistics.

In 2017 alone, 150 people died in crashes involving semi trucks in the state of Ohio, with 72% of those crashes putting the motorist at fault, not the trucker.

“Four-wheelers, they don’t respect truckers,” said truck driver Gerold Cole to NBC 4 I News.

“I appreciate what the safety officers are doing, as far as the safety, but I agree that they need to hit the four-wheelers more,” he said.

“They don’t turn their signals on. They give us no indications… People forget we can’t stop on a dime. One of my biggest fears is running over a car with babies in it,” he continued.

“Improper lane change, following too close is the primary violations that we see,” said Lt. Kelly Weakley, an officer involved in the targeting of dangerous motorists.

“Potentially 80,000 pounds going down the freeway, so you want to make sure you give them proper room, make sure they can see you… The majority of the commercial related fatalities is the passenger vehicle that is at fault,” Weakley added.

The Ohio Insurance Institute even says that, because of the reckless driving of careless motorists, auto-insurance rates are skyrocketing across the state.

Crackdown on reckless motorists to begin in Ohio after new statistics show 72% of semi related crashes are fault of four-wheeler