Located in near the far northwestern border of Ohio, Defiance County derives its name from the once-glorious military facility built at the point where the Auglaize and Maumee rivers meet. Covering approximately 414 square miles, Defiance County is home to approximately 39,500 residents and lists the Township of Defiance as its county seat and its largest population center. With over 13,400 residents, the Township of Defiance is home to over a third of the residents of the entire county.
Defiance County tends to experience a relatively moderate number of per capita traffic accidents per year, with 804 traffic accidents reported in 2007 and another 841 in 2008. A year to year increase in total traffic accidents of approximately 5% could be the result of policy changes or it may simply be a sign that the population of Defiance County is too small of a data set to draw meaningful numbers from without looking at several years of data. To underscore this, there were 7 traffic-related fatalities in 2007 but only 3 in 2008 despite a near 5% increase in total traffic accidents.
Two of the three 2008 traffic fatalities were linked to alcohol, one in the Township of Richland and another in the Township of Hicksville. Only one of the seven traffic fatalities in 2007 was linked to alcohol, and that particular accident was reported in the Township of Adams. All of these facts are not only interesting due to what they say, but also due to what they do not say: Defiance experienced no alcohol-related traffic fatalities in 2007 or 2008. For a township of over 13,000, that is fairly impressive, especially in an area with inclement weather during a fair portion of the year. Interestingly, only a single alcohol-related traffic accident was reported in the Township of Defiance during 2007, and it did not even result in a single injury. 2008 saw a total of six alcohol-related traffic accidents in the Township of Defiance, resulting in only four injuries.
Another interesting fact about Defiance County is that there was only a single unknown and/or unattributable traffic accident in 2008, and it occurred in the Township of Hicksville. Perhaps the fact that the same township accounted for half of the four such county-wide incidents in 2007 was not merely a coincidence.
The Township of Richland was arguably the most dangerous place for motorists in Defiance County during 2007 and 2008, with 122 and 128 accidents on record respectively. Given the fact that the Township of Richland only has 2,941 residents living within the borders of Defiance County, these figures are quite alarming. The townships of Noble and Delaware also seem to be trouble magnets for motorists; the Township of Noble reported 113 traffic accidents during 2007 and another 124 during 2008, while the Township of Delaware reported 101 and 76 in the same time period. Other townships, such as Washington, also experience periodic stints where they appear in the top-3 list for overall traffic accidents in Defiance County, but more data is needed to determine why this is the case.
If you’ve been seriously injured or have lost a loved one in a Richland Township, Noble Township, or Delaware Township truck / car accident, call the Defiance 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.