9 killed on Ohio roads over holiday weekend

COLUMBUS (AP) — Though the just completed Fourth of July travel period was much longer than last year’s, it was also less deadly on Ohio roads.

The State Highway Patrol says nine people were killed in traffic accidents over the long holiday weekend that began Thursday evening and continued through Sunday.

That’s one fewer than the 10 who died last year when Independence Day fell on a Wednesday and the patrol counted holiday fatalities only on that day and the evening before.

This year did see a much larger number of impaired driving arrests around the Fourth of July: about 700, compared with roughly 300 during the shorter reporting period in 2007.