COLUMBUS, Ohio (WCMH) — The Ohio State Highway Patrol released its statistics for the New Year’s period and reported six fatal crashes during the holiday weekend.

Seven people were killed in those crashes with two dying in a Muskingum County crash. Two crashes occurred in northwest Ohio, one in Cuyahoga County, one in Gallia County, and another on the border of Preble and Montgomery counties.

According to OSHP, five of the seven people killed in crashes from midnight Dec. 29, 2023 to 11:59 p.m. Jan. 1, 2024 were not wearing a seat belt. This is the lowest number of fatalities reported in the last four years, continuing a decrease of fatal crashes in the state during holiday periods.

For Thanksgiving and Christmas 2023, OSHP reported the least amount of fatalities during those holiday periods in five years.

Over this past New Year’s period, OSHP said they made 272 OVI arrests, a near 25% increase, in addition to a 73.8% increase in distracted driving citations from 61 in 2022-23 to 106 in 2023-24. Distracted driving citations in Ohio increased by a significant amount during both Thanksgiving and Christmas.