Franklin County Ohio Car Accident Attorney Discusses Statistics

Located in the heart of Ohio, Franklin County is named in honor of Benjamin Franklin. Containing part of Columbus within its borders, Franklin County has a population of well over a million residents. A little less than a third of those residents live in the various townships in Franklin County, the latest of which (by population) happens to be the Township of Mifflin with 35,787 residents.

Franklin County recorded a grand total of 4,371 traffic accidents and 18 traffic-related fatalities in 2007, and another 4,094 traffic accidents and 22 traffic-related fatalities in 2008. These statistics are stable primarily because of the comparatively large population of Franklin County, which makes gleaning meaningful data from even a single year of statistics possible.

The townships that experienced the most traffic accidents in 2007 include: Franklin with 555, Prairie with 478, Blendon with 455, Jackson with 398, and Sharon with 373. Franklin again led the total crash statistics in 2008 with 513 traffic accidents, followed again by Prairie with 446, Jackson with 401, Sharon with 396, and Blendon with 362. While the order of the first few townships did not change year for year, the fact that the same townships appear in both years suggests that these townships are not the most motorist-friendly townships in Franklin County.

The fact that the Township of Mifflin recorded only 305 traffic accidents in 2007, none of which were fatal, and another 274 in 2008. With no fatalities reported on the roads of Mifflin in 2007 or 2008, the Township of Mifflin seems like a comparatively safe place for motorists in Franklin County. Franklin might appear to be on the far end of that same spectrum, but a closer look at the traffic statistics provided by the Ohio Department of Public safety indicated that Franklin had a total of 20 unknown and/or unattributable accidents reported in 2007 and another 20 in 2008. While it seems unusual to have the same number of unexplained accidents occur two years in a row, especially for a township with only 11,798 residents, Franklin is not the only township with interesting statistical anomalies worth exploring.

Blendon demonstrated this fact with a total of 28 alcohol-related traffic accidents in 2007, but only 18 the following year. Surprisingly, there were no alcohol-related traffic fatalities recorded in the Township of Blendon during 2007, and only 13 injuries reported as the result of alcohol-related car accidents. 2008 saw a strange reversal in these figures, with a single alcohol-related traffic fatality yet only 7 injuries as a product of the 18 total alcohol-related accidents that year.

It is also worth noting that the Township of Prairie recorded a total of 14 unknown and/or unattributable traffic accidents in 2007, but only a single such accident in 2008. Generally speaking, larger townships and population centers seem more prone to these types of accidents, primarily because it is easier for law enforcement officers to notice damaged vehicles in a smaller township where everyone knows everyone else’s name. By the same token, larger townships do offer a degree of anonymity that makes it easier for hit and run accidents to go unsolved.

If you’ve been seriously injured or have lost a loved one in a Blendon Township, Franklin Township, or Prairie Township truck / car accident, call the Franklin County auto accident and wrongful death attorneys / lawyers at Chester Law Group at 800-218-4243 or order your FREE BOOK entitled The Insider’s Guide to Handling Ohio Accident Claims at www.ChesterLaw.com.