Located in along the southeast border of Ohio, Athens County is home to just over 60,000 people. Nearly half the population of Athens County lives in the Township of Athens, which is also the county seat of Athens County. Both Athens County and the Township of Athens derive their name from the center of learning in ancient Greece by the same name. This may be due to the fact that Athens County was formed from Washington County in 1805, a year after the founding of Ohio University within the county limits.
It is not a surprise that the Township of Athens leads many of the crash-related statistics, considering that the next largest townships (by population) are: York (7,740), Trimble (4,710), and Dover (3,797). With a population almost equal to all of the other townships in Athens County, it would generally be safe to assume that nearly half of the auto accidents in Athens County occur in the Township of Athens. Oddly, this is not true.
In fact, the Township of Athens accounted for only 214 of the 853 crashes in Athens County in 2007 and only 199 out of 886 in 2008. Unfortunately, the Township of Athens did report a single traffic-related fatality in 2007, and three in 2008. The Township of Carthage actually had the most traffic-related fatalities in 2007, with two, and was also on the list of townships with traffic-related fatalities in 2008.Not surprisingly, the Township of Bern reported only 7 traffic accidents in 2007 and 13 in 2008. Given the fact that barely 500 people dwell within the Township of Bern, these statistics are actually alarmingly high. Despite ranking in the top five townships for total crashes in both 2007 and 2008, the Township of Trimble is actually surprisingly safe on a per capita basis, as is York. In fact, both the Township of Trimble and the Township of York rated very low on the alcohol-related traffic accident list in 2007, with five and three incidents respectively. With no alcohol-related traffic fatalities within Athens County in 2007, the entire county seems fairly safe unless one looks at the 2008 statistics.
2008 saw the total number of alcohol-related traffic accidents jump from 67 to 71, and a grand total of 6 alcohol-related traffic accidents led to a total of 7 fatalities in Athens County in 2008. This means that alcohol related fatal accidents in Athens County accounted for 60% of the 10 accidents in 2008, while also accounting for over 58% of the 12 total traffic-related fatalities in the same time period. Tragically, two of those alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2008 occurred within the Township of York.
The Township of Athens led Athens County for unknown and/or unattributable car accidents in 2007 with five total incidents, but was matched by the substantially smaller Township of Trimble. Other townships to have unknown and/or unattributable crashes in 2007 include: Dover (2), Rome (2), Troy (2), Waterloo (2), Alexander (1), Ames (1), and Canaan (1). 2008 saw Dover take the lead in unknown and/or unattributable crashes with a total of 3, while the following townships also reported similar incidents: Waterloo (2), Athens (2), Rome (2), Lodi (2), Trimble (2), York (1), and Alexander (1).
If you’ve been injured in a Athens Township, Dover or York car crash, call the Athens County auto accident attorneys 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.