Tech research hits Ohio's highways

A vehicle crashes on a highway, automatically alerting first responders to its location and severity.

• As emergency crews mobilize, the speed limit near the scene is lowered to help ward off secondary crashes.

Why it matters: This potential scenario is an example of how Ohio can get smarter about responding to crashes — and hopefully preventing them.

• The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT) received a $2 million federal grant through the bipartisan infrastructure bill to research new highway safety technology, potentially saving many lives.
• Transportation officials use extensive data to inform traffic engineering, but unpredictable factors like distracted driving and weather complicate that planning. Using new technology to make real-time adjustments is more efficient.

What they're saying: "We're seeing this rapid transformation in transportation, using technology to solve problems that engineering alone can't solve," ODOT spokesperson Breanna Badanes tells Axios.

• Harnessing these advancements would be "another tool in our toolbox" toward maintaining safe roadways, she says.

State of play: One grant-funded project seeks to alert officials and first responders whenever an airbag is deployed.

• Another hopes to process highway data to predict areas where a crash is most likely to occur.
• The state could then warn drivers via overhead message signs to stay alert and proactively place emergency crews in hazardous areas.

The intrigue: Select highways, including Route 670 east from downtown, already feature "variable speed limits" that can be adjusted on the fly.

• State lawmakers have the authority to expand this system to other highways across Ohio, but have not yet done so.

By the numbers: There were 265,000 crashes recorded across Ohio last year, per the state highway patrol, with thousands reported on well-traveled highways like Routes 270, 70, and 71.

• Perhaps unsurprisingly, the greatest concentration of crashes happen during high-volume times of day — when real-time safety warnings could reach the most number of drivers.