July 1, 2025 • 13 mins
Sgt Mike Smith of the Mansfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol shares some important safety info with roadways expected to be busy over the long, July 4th holiday weekend. Sgt. Smith spoke with WMAN and reminders drivers to slow down, don't drink and drive, and buckle up. He also shares about a trooper from the Mansfield Post responding to the black bear in Richland County, plus maintenance reminders for your vehicles going on long road trips.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:00):
The July fourth holiday arriving and roadways are going to
be busy. We have joining us in studio Sergeant Mike
Smith from the Mansfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Good morning, It's always great to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Aaron. How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm good? All right, So hard to believe. Here we
are holiday time and they're expecting record travel because the
way the fourth falls on a Friday, some people are
going to get a couple of weekends, so we're going
to see all kinds of people on the roadway right.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, yeah, it's going to be an extra long weekend
for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I wanted to jump in and talk about some
important reminders for people, and we have a variety of
topics we're going to get to as we talk about
that July fourth time period in people traveling. It's, first
of all, it's vacation season as well. It's been warm,
so we're going to see a lot of people on
the road. One thing I've noticed, I wanted to bring
it up to you. I just see a lot of
people driving quite a bit faster than the posted speed limit.
(00:55):
What are you guys seeing out on the roadway right now?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, so unsafe. Speed still a major contributor to our
traffic crash pictures. People just seem to go faster and faster,
and I don't know if it's just they want to
get to where they're going faster, or they're impatient, or
they're running behind. I don't know what it is. But
in addition to that, it's motorcycle season. You know, you
got to be careful with the bikes out there. They
are smaller. You want to look twice to make sure
(01:20):
over your shoulder, you want to make sure there's no
one creeping up in your blind spot. With that, you
also don't want to neglect your turn signals. These are
issues that we see, especially in the summertime. Even this morning,
when I was coming in here to do the interview,
I stopped someone who who was on their cell phone.
You know, if you're taking a long trip and you
might want to designate someone to manage and handle your
(01:41):
cell phone, whether it's the directions or the playlist or
whatever it is. Yeah, you definitely want to make sure
that phone gets put down.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You're hearing this morning from Sergeant Mike Smith again from
the Mansfield post of the Ohio State Highway patrol, and
we're talking about being safe on the roadways. A lot
of important reminders around the July fourth holiday bought up
distracted driving. I saw a statewide story the other morning
that somebody was on their phone and it had something
to do with an O DOT worker. I don't think
(02:09):
there was any injuries, but there was an accident, and
I believe it's better than seventy times. Now. OData said
they've had somebody, you know, kind of have an accident
in a work zone.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That's right, And the whole push for this distracted driving
is is that it keeps everybody safe. It keeps the
emergency worker safe, it keeps other motorists safe. I want
to touch briefly on the slow down move over law.
You know, we had a pretty tragic crash last summer
where a Richland County worker was killed in a work zone.
And that's the whole reason for this law is that
(02:39):
you have to move over if you can, and if
you can't move over, you have to slow down. And
that's out there for law enforcement, for EMTs, for tow
truck drivers, for anybody in an emergency vehicle. So again,
you got to pay attention to your surroundings and know
what's coming up down the road. If you see a
vehicle pulled off on the shoulder with emergency lights, whether
(03:00):
those are red and blue lights or amber and green lights,
you want to slow down, move out of the way.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Important reminders from the Highway Patrol Sergeant Mike Smith Mansfield
Poster is with us in the studio. So we talk
about the travel around the July fourth holiday, and you know,
some information shared from trip LA because I mentioned the
holiday falling July fourth on a Friday. People get a
couple of weekends. They're expecting like record travel across the country.
Somewhere in the ballpark of seventy two million people across
(03:27):
the US will go at least fifty miles from their home.
And you and I were talking, there's so many places
in Ohio where you could have what you would call
a day trip, and it could be baseball, it could
be amusement park. You mentioned me Mohican. There's so many places.
We're going to see a lot of people on the
roadways because it's what you would call that summertime with
the year where they want to get out and have
some fun. But you got to remember to be safe.
(03:49):
Watch speed and everything we're talking about, right.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's right. People are out to enjoy themselves, you know so.
And if your plans to enjoy yourself include drinking, make
sure you don't drink, and plan ahead designated driver if
that's on your agenda, you want to make sure you
do it safely. Also, always buckle up. You got vehicles
full of kids, vehicles full of families going to out
there to enjoy themselves. You want to make sure you're
(04:12):
doing it safely. Buckling up is one of the easiest
and safest things you can do to protect yourself out
there on the highway.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Great reminder again from Sergeant Mike Smith, Mansfield Post locally
of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Something you and I
were talking about and you brought this up to me,
and I was not overly aware. You always talk about
maybe you're hanging on your vehicle a little bit longer.
You want to make sure maintenance and things like that.
You and I were talking and you were telling me,
with the heat that can affect your vehicle, right.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
That's right. So we're in like an unusually warm summer here,
and I was doing some research on nits's website nits's
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and they said that
the belts and hoses in your cars can wear out
faster in extremely extremely hot situations and environments. So if
you're going on a long trip, you might want to
(05:02):
get your car checked before you go. Change the oil
if it's close, get the belts and hoses checked out,
Double check your wiper blades, and also check that spare tire.
You know, if you are driving an older vehicle, that
spare tire is just as old as your vehicle and
it's probably not seen the light of day since you
opened it last time, you know, like it's buried there
in the bottom part of your trunk. You want to
(05:23):
make sure that if you need that spare tire, you
have it available and that it's serviceable.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, you brought up tires, so you want to make
sure that all those tires are properly inflated for safety.
And it also gets you better gas mileage too.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's right. Yeah, a misaligned vehicle or a lower pressure
on your tires can can definitely affect your gas mileage.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And some more information I saw from Triple A that
they were sharing that last year around the July fourth holiday,
they were spotted to nearly seven hundred thousand emergency road
side calls. And you mentioned tires, you know, maybe a
dead battery, they said, you know, you know, people running
out of gas, lock themselves out of their car, all
those kind of things. You really want to make sure
that you mentioned you have a plan. I think that's
(06:03):
the one thing you talk about. I think a lot
of times people only think about that maybe in the
winter time because you could you slide off the road
or something like that. But you mentioned when you're having
temperatures of one hundred degrees and the humidity and all
of that, well, you got to have water and food
and all that stuff in the car, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's right. Even if you're going for like just a
short day trip, it's not a bad idea to pack
a cooler full of ice water, because if your car
does break down in the middle of nowhere, it may
take an hour and a half to two hours for
a tow truck to come find you. And you want
to make sure that you have cold water to drink,
a place for kids to hang out and stay out
of the heat.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And he mentioned also maybe your cell phone charge or
make sure that's all charged up and everything as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right, if your car does break down, know who you're
gonna call in the event of emergency. Have somebody that
you can call that can help respond, that might be
able to help transport passengers, or bring you gas or
bring you some kind of aid that might alleviate the situation.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Experiencing a lot of people on the roadway around the
July fourth holiday, and the Mansfield Post of the Ohio
State Higway Patrol is in studio this morning. That is
Sergeant Mike Smith the voice you hear and a little
more information from Triple A there saying the car increase
about two point two percent over last year on the
road in terms of the amount of people on the
road over the holiday. So you brought up motorcycles. We
(07:23):
touched on a few other things, but we started with speeding.
And something you guys have in terms of enforcement is
via the air. Could you talk a little bit about
enforcement when it's actually not the patrol on the road,
but it's the patrol in the air. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That's right. I do want to let everybody know that
we do have the capabilities of having an airplane in
the sky checking speeds on the Interstates. A lot of
people don't realize that, and we work with pilots all
over the busy weekends and whenever they have an opportunity
to get up in the sky and it's our air
speed enforcement. We work with the pilots. They walk us
(07:59):
into the vehicle that they have observed speeding and we
do issue citations on their behalf. So keep that in
mind when you're driving on the Interstates that we may
even have eyes up in the air.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah. We had a good conversation with the guy a
few years back that you brought in and it's amazing
how that works from that high up in the air
and the plane.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Very technical, very precise.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, if you go back in our podcast, you'd be
able to take a listen. How is the communication radio?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would assume it is radio communication. Yeah, So basically
what happens is the ground units, the troopers on the
ground are waiting in a predetermined location and the pilot
will check a vehicle speed over the post of speed
limit and he will call it off. And then once
the trooper on the ground navigates behind the correct vehicle,
the pilot will confirm the time of violation, the recorded
(08:48):
speed and the trooper on the ground initiates a traffic
stop and makes contact.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And we are learning about the Ohio State Highway Patrol
Mansfield Post in this morning. Two things before I let
you go, Sergeant Mike Smithing that you've brought up and
I wanted to bring this back up. You called the
stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The patrol does
the one hundred deadliest days of summer. Because you sit
to see so many accidents in that time. Could you
(09:14):
explain that a little bit for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, So, basically, if you think of a year in
three hundred and sixty five days, that one hundred day
stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day, that's where we
see the highest concentration of traffic crashes and deadly traffic crashes.
So our fatal investigations go up significantly during that time.
Has a lot to do with the amount of traffic
(09:36):
and the amount of people that are out traveling around
and trying. They're trying to enjoy the summer, and we
don't blame them for that, but you have to be
careful when you do.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So important information to be careful on the roadways. Before
I let you go, something that happened earlier in June
was a black bear was spotted in Richland County, first
time since nineteen ninety nine, twenty six years, and one
of your troopers responded to this this accident correct.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That is correct. Unfortunately, he wasn't just spotted. He was
spotted by a truck pulling a livestock trailer and it
involved a a traffic crash. Unfortunately, due to the due
to the bear's injuries, the odn R, the Ohio Department
of Natural Resources asked us to euthanize the bear at
the scene of the crash. But yeah, you just never
(10:24):
know what's out there. You never know what's coming up
and down the roadway. In fact, we were talking and
less than a week later there was a crash on
the Interstate involving a longhorn steer and a semi So
you got to be careful out there.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, And even this time of the year, I don't
I think people think about deer, maybe more toward the fall,
but I still see a lot of deer on the
on the roadway.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
We're still we're still handling deer crashes even through the summer. YEP.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
We always talk about again, Sergeant Mike Smith Foy let
him go. You're on the highway a lot. You mentioned
turn signals, you know, checking that blind spot when you're
when you're when you're on the highway, you're on a
seven any one or something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, exactly, I you know, I totally get it. You're
on a long along road trip, going on vacation and
you kind of get in that that travel mode where
you're just kind of running on autopilot, but you don't
want to neglect your turn signal. You don't want to
stop checking that blind spot because you just never know
when there's a car or a motorcycle, you know, right
there in the back corner of your vehicle, and the
(11:21):
last thing you want is to start your family vacation
off with a traffic crash and in some other state
or some other area where you might not be familiar with.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Well before I let you go, Sarna, Mike Smith and
the Mansfield Post of the Highway Patrol giving us very
important information around the holiday and a lot of people
going to be traveling. You guys, of course hiring at
the patrol. You've had people come down. You mentioned interest
in those those ride along so encourage them that they
want to become a trooper one day, how do they
(11:51):
stop down and see you guys and get the process started.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, if anyone out there is interested, or if you
know of anybody who's interested, We're always looking for good people.
There are several they can get in touch with us.
They can go on our website and they can apply
to be a trooper there. They can stop by the
post and talk to us in person. I'm always kind
of a face to face kind of guy. I like
to talk to people face to face. If they want
to get a hold of us, they can call the
post to see if there's anybody available, and they can
(12:15):
just stop on in. We're glad to talk to them.
You know. We'll be happy to help them out and
point them in the right direction. We do have ride alongs,
you know, for people that are interested, if they want
to kind of test drive the career a little bit
and see what it's all about. But yeah, like I said,
stop in and talk to us. We'd love to kind
of get your see what your intentions are, and see
what kind of career we can help you out with.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Real quick walk us through what a what a ride
along's like with the patrol.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So normally what we do if someone's interested in a
ride along, I will invite them over to the post
first and foremost, and I will sit down and talk
to them, kind of get their intentions, kind of see
why they want to be a state trooper or what,
you know, what their overall interest is and how we
can best suit them. There's some policies that will go through,
there's some rules we have in place, there's a liability
form that they have to sign off on. And then
(13:00):
after talking to them, I'll get a better idea of
what their personality is like, and I'll know who to
kind of pair them up with. And a ride along
could be anywhere from two to four to six to
eight hours long. And then you get to sit in
the passenger seat with a trooper and kind of see
what we do on a day to day basis. Once
we put you through a little bit of a vetting process, yeah,
we're more than happy to kind of help show you,
show you what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A lot of technology in those cars now right.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
There absolutely is yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And how many years now with the patrol almost fourteen years?
All right, yeah, all right, Well, I appreciate the time
this morning. Sergeant Mike Smith will let him go. He's
got to get back out on the roadway again. He
is with the Mansfield post of the Highway Patrol you mentioned.
You can go to their website. Stop down to the
post as well in Mansfield. We appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Thank you. Erin
The July fourth holiday arriving and roadways are going to
be busy. We have joining us in studio Sergeant Mike
Smith from the Mansfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
Good morning, It's always great to see you.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
Good morning, Aaron. How are you.
Speaker 1 (00:17):
I'm good? All right, So hard to believe. Here we
are holiday time and they're expecting record travel because the
way the fourth falls on a Friday, some people are
going to get a couple of weekends, so we're going
to see all kinds of people on the roadway right.
Speaker 2 (00:31):
Oh, yeah, it's going to be an extra long weekend
for sure.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
Well, I wanted to jump in and talk about some
important reminders for people, and we have a variety of
topics we're going to get to as we talk about
that July fourth time period in people traveling. It's, first
of all, it's vacation season as well. It's been warm,
so we're going to see a lot of people on
the road. One thing I've noticed, I wanted to bring
it up to you. I just see a lot of
people driving quite a bit faster than the posted speed limit.
(00:55):
What are you guys seeing out on the roadway right now?
Speaker 2 (00:58):
Yeah, so unsafe. Speed still a major contributor to our
traffic crash pictures. People just seem to go faster and faster,
and I don't know if it's just they want to
get to where they're going faster, or they're impatient, or
they're running behind. I don't know what it is. But
in addition to that, it's motorcycle season. You know, you
got to be careful with the bikes out there. They
are smaller. You want to look twice to make sure
(01:20):
over your shoulder, you want to make sure there's no
one creeping up in your blind spot. With that, you
also don't want to neglect your turn signals. These are
issues that we see, especially in the summertime. Even this morning,
when I was coming in here to do the interview,
I stopped someone who who was on their cell phone.
You know, if you're taking a long trip and you
might want to designate someone to manage and handle your
(01:41):
cell phone, whether it's the directions or the playlist or
whatever it is. Yeah, you definitely want to make sure
that phone gets put down.
Speaker 1 (01:48):
You're hearing this morning from Sergeant Mike Smith again from
the Mansfield post of the Ohio State Highway patrol, and
we're talking about being safe on the roadways. A lot
of important reminders around the July fourth holiday bought up
distracted driving. I saw a statewide story the other morning
that somebody was on their phone and it had something
to do with an O DOT worker. I don't think
(02:09):
there was any injuries, but there was an accident, and
I believe it's better than seventy times. Now. OData said
they've had somebody, you know, kind of have an accident
in a work zone.
Speaker 2 (02:18):
That's right, And the whole push for this distracted driving
is is that it keeps everybody safe. It keeps the
emergency worker safe, it keeps other motorists safe. I want
to touch briefly on the slow down move over law.
You know, we had a pretty tragic crash last summer
where a Richland County worker was killed in a work zone.
And that's the whole reason for this law is that
(02:39):
you have to move over if you can, and if
you can't move over, you have to slow down. And
that's out there for law enforcement, for EMTs, for tow
truck drivers, for anybody in an emergency vehicle. So again,
you got to pay attention to your surroundings and know
what's coming up down the road. If you see a
vehicle pulled off on the shoulder with emergency lights, whether
(03:00):
those are red and blue lights or amber and green lights,
you want to slow down, move out of the way.
Speaker 1 (03:05):
Important reminders from the Highway Patrol Sergeant Mike Smith Mansfield
Poster is with us in the studio. So we talk
about the travel around the July fourth holiday, and you know,
some information shared from trip LA because I mentioned the
holiday falling July fourth on a Friday. People get a
couple of weekends. They're expecting like record travel across the country.
Somewhere in the ballpark of seventy two million people across
(03:27):
the US will go at least fifty miles from their home.
And you and I were talking, there's so many places
in Ohio where you could have what you would call
a day trip, and it could be baseball, it could
be amusement park. You mentioned me Mohican. There's so many places.
We're going to see a lot of people on the
roadways because it's what you would call that summertime with
the year where they want to get out and have
some fun. But you got to remember to be safe.
(03:49):
Watch speed and everything we're talking about, right.
Speaker 2 (03:51):
That's right. People are out to enjoy themselves, you know so.
And if your plans to enjoy yourself include drinking, make
sure you don't drink, and plan ahead designated driver if
that's on your agenda, you want to make sure you
do it safely. Also, always buckle up. You got vehicles
full of kids, vehicles full of families going to out
there to enjoy themselves. You want to make sure you're
(04:12):
doing it safely. Buckling up is one of the easiest
and safest things you can do to protect yourself out
there on the highway.
Speaker 1 (04:18):
Great reminder again from Sergeant Mike Smith, Mansfield Post locally
of the Ohio State Highway Patrol. Something you and I
were talking about and you brought this up to me,
and I was not overly aware. You always talk about
maybe you're hanging on your vehicle a little bit longer.
You want to make sure maintenance and things like that.
You and I were talking and you were telling me,
with the heat that can affect your vehicle, right.
Speaker 2 (04:41):
That's right. So we're in like an unusually warm summer here,
and I was doing some research on nits's website nits's
the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and they said that
the belts and hoses in your cars can wear out
faster in extremely extremely hot situations and environments. So if
you're going on a long trip, you might want to
(05:02):
get your car checked before you go. Change the oil
if it's close, get the belts and hoses checked out,
Double check your wiper blades, and also check that spare tire.
You know, if you are driving an older vehicle, that
spare tire is just as old as your vehicle and
it's probably not seen the light of day since you
opened it last time, you know, like it's buried there
in the bottom part of your trunk. You want to
(05:23):
make sure that if you need that spare tire, you
have it available and that it's serviceable.
Speaker 1 (05:26):
Well, you brought up tires, so you want to make
sure that all those tires are properly inflated for safety.
And it also gets you better gas mileage too.
Speaker 2 (05:34):
That's right. Yeah, a misaligned vehicle or a lower pressure
on your tires can can definitely affect your gas mileage.
Speaker 1 (05:41):
And some more information I saw from Triple A that
they were sharing that last year around the July fourth holiday,
they were spotted to nearly seven hundred thousand emergency road
side calls. And you mentioned tires, you know, maybe a
dead battery, they said, you know, you know, people running
out of gas, lock themselves out of their car, all
those kind of things. You really want to make sure
that you mentioned you have a plan. I think that's
(06:03):
the one thing you talk about. I think a lot
of times people only think about that maybe in the
winter time because you could you slide off the road
or something like that. But you mentioned when you're having
temperatures of one hundred degrees and the humidity and all
of that, well, you got to have water and food
and all that stuff in the car, right.
Speaker 2 (06:18):
That's right. Even if you're going for like just a
short day trip, it's not a bad idea to pack
a cooler full of ice water, because if your car
does break down in the middle of nowhere, it may
take an hour and a half to two hours for
a tow truck to come find you. And you want
to make sure that you have cold water to drink,
a place for kids to hang out and stay out
of the heat.
Speaker 1 (06:38):
And he mentioned also maybe your cell phone charge or
make sure that's all charged up and everything as well.
Speaker 2 (06:43):
Right, if your car does break down, know who you're
gonna call in the event of emergency. Have somebody that
you can call that can help respond, that might be
able to help transport passengers, or bring you gas or
bring you some kind of aid that might alleviate the situation.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
Experiencing a lot of people on the roadway around the
July fourth holiday, and the Mansfield Post of the Ohio
State Higway Patrol is in studio this morning. That is
Sergeant Mike Smith the voice you hear and a little
more information from Triple A there saying the car increase
about two point two percent over last year on the
road in terms of the amount of people on the
road over the holiday. So you brought up motorcycles. We
(07:23):
touched on a few other things, but we started with speeding.
And something you guys have in terms of enforcement is
via the air. Could you talk a little bit about
enforcement when it's actually not the patrol on the road,
but it's the patrol in the air. Talk about that.
Speaker 2 (07:39):
That's right. I do want to let everybody know that
we do have the capabilities of having an airplane in
the sky checking speeds on the Interstates. A lot of
people don't realize that, and we work with pilots all
over the busy weekends and whenever they have an opportunity
to get up in the sky and it's our air
speed enforcement. We work with the pilots. They walk us
(07:59):
into the vehicle that they have observed speeding and we
do issue citations on their behalf. So keep that in
mind when you're driving on the Interstates that we may
even have eyes up in the air.
Speaker 1 (08:09):
Yeah. We had a good conversation with the guy a
few years back that you brought in and it's amazing
how that works from that high up in the air
and the plane.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
Very technical, very precise.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Yeah, if you go back in our podcast, you'd be
able to take a listen. How is the communication radio?
Speaker 2 (08:25):
I would assume it is radio communication. Yeah, So basically
what happens is the ground units, the troopers on the
ground are waiting in a predetermined location and the pilot
will check a vehicle speed over the post of speed
limit and he will call it off. And then once
the trooper on the ground navigates behind the correct vehicle,
the pilot will confirm the time of violation, the recorded
(08:48):
speed and the trooper on the ground initiates a traffic
stop and makes contact.
Speaker 1 (08:53):
And we are learning about the Ohio State Highway Patrol
Mansfield Post in this morning. Two things before I let
you go, Sergeant Mike Smithing that you've brought up and
I wanted to bring this back up. You called the
stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The patrol does
the one hundred deadliest days of summer. Because you sit
to see so many accidents in that time. Could you
(09:14):
explain that a little bit for everybody.
Speaker 2 (09:15):
Yeah, So, basically, if you think of a year in
three hundred and sixty five days, that one hundred day
stretch between Memorial Day and Labor Day, that's where we
see the highest concentration of traffic crashes and deadly traffic crashes.
So our fatal investigations go up significantly during that time.
Has a lot to do with the amount of traffic
(09:36):
and the amount of people that are out traveling around
and trying. They're trying to enjoy the summer, and we
don't blame them for that, but you have to be
careful when you do.
Speaker 1 (09:43):
So important information to be careful on the roadways. Before
I let you go, something that happened earlier in June
was a black bear was spotted in Richland County, first
time since nineteen ninety nine, twenty six years, and one
of your troopers responded to this this accident correct.
Speaker 2 (10:03):
That is correct. Unfortunately, he wasn't just spotted. He was
spotted by a truck pulling a livestock trailer and it
involved a a traffic crash. Unfortunately, due to the due
to the bear's injuries, the odn R, the Ohio Department
of Natural Resources asked us to euthanize the bear at
the scene of the crash. But yeah, you just never
(10:24):
know what's out there. You never know what's coming up
and down the roadway. In fact, we were talking and
less than a week later there was a crash on
the Interstate involving a longhorn steer and a semi So
you got to be careful out there.
Speaker 1 (10:38):
Yeah, And even this time of the year, I don't
I think people think about deer, maybe more toward the fall,
but I still see a lot of deer on the
on the roadway.
Speaker 2 (10:46):
We're still we're still handling deer crashes even through the summer. YEP.
Speaker 1 (10:50):
We always talk about again, Sergeant Mike Smith Foy let
him go. You're on the highway a lot. You mentioned
turn signals, you know, checking that blind spot when you're
when you're when you're on the highway, you're on a
seven any one or something like that.
Speaker 2 (11:01):
Yeah, exactly, I you know, I totally get it. You're
on a long along road trip, going on vacation and
you kind of get in that that travel mode where
you're just kind of running on autopilot, but you don't
want to neglect your turn signal. You don't want to
stop checking that blind spot because you just never know
when there's a car or a motorcycle, you know, right
there in the back corner of your vehicle, and the
(11:21):
last thing you want is to start your family vacation
off with a traffic crash and in some other state
or some other area where you might not be familiar with.
Speaker 1 (11:30):
Well before I let you go, Sarna, Mike Smith and
the Mansfield Post of the Highway Patrol giving us very
important information around the holiday and a lot of people
going to be traveling. You guys, of course hiring at
the patrol. You've had people come down. You mentioned interest
in those those ride along so encourage them that they
want to become a trooper one day, how do they
(11:51):
stop down and see you guys and get the process started.
Speaker 2 (11:53):
Yeah, if anyone out there is interested, or if you
know of anybody who's interested, We're always looking for good people.
There are several they can get in touch with us.
They can go on our website and they can apply
to be a trooper there. They can stop by the
post and talk to us in person. I'm always kind
of a face to face kind of guy. I like
to talk to people face to face. If they want
to get a hold of us, they can call the
post to see if there's anybody available, and they can
(12:15):
just stop on in. We're glad to talk to them.
You know. We'll be happy to help them out and
point them in the right direction. We do have ride alongs,
you know, for people that are interested, if they want
to kind of test drive the career a little bit
and see what it's all about. But yeah, like I said,
stop in and talk to us. We'd love to kind
of get your see what your intentions are, and see
what kind of career we can help you out with.
Speaker 1 (12:34):
Real quick walk us through what a what a ride
along's like with the patrol.
Speaker 2 (12:39):
So normally what we do if someone's interested in a
ride along, I will invite them over to the post
first and foremost, and I will sit down and talk
to them, kind of get their intentions, kind of see
why they want to be a state trooper or what,
you know, what their overall interest is and how we
can best suit them. There's some policies that will go through,
there's some rules we have in place, there's a liability
form that they have to sign off on. And then
(13:00):
after talking to them, I'll get a better idea of
what their personality is like, and I'll know who to
kind of pair them up with. And a ride along
could be anywhere from two to four to six to
eight hours long. And then you get to sit in
the passenger seat with a trooper and kind of see
what we do on a day to day basis. Once
we put you through a little bit of a vetting process, yeah,
we're more than happy to kind of help show you,
show you what it's all about.
Speaker 1 (13:20):
A lot of technology in those cars now right.
Speaker 2 (13:22):
There absolutely is yep, yep.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
And how many years now with the patrol almost fourteen years?
All right, yeah, all right, Well, I appreciate the time
this morning. Sergeant Mike Smith will let him go. He's
got to get back out on the roadway again. He
is with the Mansfield post of the Highway Patrol you mentioned.
You can go to their website. Stop down to the
post as well in Mansfield. We appreciate your time this morning.
Thank you so much for coming in.
Speaker 2 (13:45):
Thank you. Erin
Popular Podcasts
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
Law & Order: Criminal Justice System - Season 1 & Season 2
Season Two Out Now! Law & Order: Criminal Justice System tells the real stories behind the landmark cases that have shaped how the most dangerous and influential criminals in America are prosecuted. In its second season, the series tackles the threat of terrorism in the United States. From the rise of extremist political groups in the 60s to domestic lone wolves in the modern day, we explore how organizations like the FBI and Joint Terrorism Take Force have evolved to fight back against a multitude of terrorist threats.