Four years of decline
According to state data, 2025 marked the fourth consecutive annual drop in traffic fatalities, continuing a downward trend that began in 2022. State officials say that over those four years, more than 200 lives have been saved compared with earlier, higher baselines.
Ohio Department of Transportation leaders and the Highway Patrol point to the sustained decline as evidence that recent policy changes, targeted enforcement, and public education campaigns are having a measurable impact on road safety.
Impact of the 2023 law
A key change was Ohio’s 2023 distracted-driving law, which made using or holding a phone or other electronic device while driving a primary offense, allowing officers to stop drivers solely for that violation. Before the law took effect, officers could ticket distracted drivers only if they were pulled over for another infraction such as speeding or running a red light.
The law generally bars drivers from texting, scrolling, or entering GPS directions while a vehicle is moving, while still allowing calls in limited situations and use while the vehicle is stopped at a light. Violations can result in fines and license points, penalties that lawmakers and safety advocates hoped would deter drivers from handling their phones on the road.
Fewer taps, fewer crashes
New telematics data suggest those hopes are being realized. A 2025 analysis by Cambridge Mobile Telematics found Ohio drivers tapped their phones about 7% less often than the national average and spent about 5% less time on handheld calls. The study drew on millions of trips tracked by smartphone-based insurance and safety programs to compare driver behavior in Ohio with the rest of the country.
State officials say those behavioral changes are showing up in crash statistics. The Highway Patrol reports that fatal and serious crashes linked specifically to distracted driving fell by about 10% year over year after the law’s enforcement ramped up. Overall traffic deaths declined by approximately 3% in 2025, which officials call another sign that drivers are gradually putting their phones down.
Officials welcome progress, urge caution
Gov. Mike DeWine’s administration and transportation leaders have credited the primary-offense distracted-driving law as a major factor in the state’s improved safety picture, along with ongoing enforcement and public-awareness efforts. In a recent update, ODOT highlighted that traffic fatalities have dropped roughly 11% in the two years since primary enforcement began in October 2023.
At the same time, officials stress that too many Ohioans are still driving distracted. ODOT leaders have warned that phone use remains stubbornly high in several large counties, and that even with recent gains, thousands of crashes each year still involve drivers whose attention is off the road.
Work still ahead
Safety advocates say the challenge now is sustaining and expanding the early progress. They argue that continued high-visibility enforcement, data-driven targeting of trouble spots, and public campaigns emphasizing the risks of distracted driving will be crucial to driving fatalities even lower.
For drivers, the message from state officials is simple: the new law may have helped push traffic deaths down four years in a row, but keeping that trend going will depend on every motorist resisting the urge to pick up the phone.