Putnam County is located in the northwestern section of Ohio and is named after General Israel Putnam, a war hero from the famous Battle of Bunker Hill. The most populated township in Putnam County happens to be Ottawa, which also happens to be the county seat. Home to 7,961 residents, the Township of Ottawa is home to at least twice as many people as any other township in Putnam County. The fact that overall county population is so low, and the population of many of the townships in Putnam County tend to be in the low 4-digit range, should result in statistics that need to be evaluated carefully and with an eye towards trends that last more than one year.
According to the reports issued by the Ohio Department of Public Safety, Putnam County experienced only 491 total traffic accidents during the course of 2007 and another 492 during 2008. Not only are these figures remarkably stable for a county with less than 35,000 residents, they are also very safe. These figures do not appear to be the product of selective law enforcement or creative reclassification of crimes, but rather those that come from a county with strict law enforcement and safe drivers. For example, only 5 people lost their lives on the roads of Putnam County during 2007, and only 4 more people lost their lives the next year. Those traffic fatality rates are certainly in line with the overall expectations of a county recording just under 500 traffic accidents each year.
The townships that did manage to record the highest number of overall traffic accidents in Putnam County during 2007 were: Ottawa with a grand total of 57 traffic accidents on file, Union with 47, Blanchard with 43, Greensburg with 41 total traffic accidents on file. 2008 saw many of the same townships post very similar numbers: Ottawa with 52 total traffic accidents on the books, Monroe and Blanchard with 49 each, and Union with 43 total traffic accidents on file. The traffic fatalities in Putnam County seem to dispersed fairly randomly throughout both years, with only Blanchard and Ottawa having fatalities during both the 2007 and 2008 calendar years.
Of course, the Township of Ottawa did experience three traffic-related fatalities during 2007, and was the only township to report multiple traffic-related fatalities during either year. One of the traffic-related fatalities that went on the books in Ottawa during 2007 was alcohol-related, as was the traffic fatality in Monroe that year. 2008 saw Blanchard, Pleasant, and Greensburg all report a single alcohol-related traffic fatality, which were part of the 38 countywide alcohol-related traffic accidents on record that year.
Also worthy of note is the fact that the Township of Perry experienced unknown and/or unexplained traffic accidents during 2007 and 2008. In fact, the Township of Perry led the county in such accidents in 2007 with two unattributable traffic accidents on the books. In 2008, no township experienced more than a single unexplained and/or unattributable traffic accident, but the following 6 townships did report one such problem each: Monterey, Palmer, Union, Ottawa, Perry, and Blanchard.
If you’ve been seriously injured or have lost a loved one in a Perry Township, Ottawa Township, or Union Township truck / car accident, call the Putnam 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.