‘No excuse’ Ohio drivers keep stopping in the middle of the highway
Somewhere on I-71 near Columbus, Ohio, traffic came to an unexpected standstill. Not for construction, not for a crash, but because someone slammed on the brakes in the middle of the highway after realizing they were about to miss their exit. That split-second decision set off a chain-reaction crash and sent police hunting for the driver, who took off before anyone could ask what they were thinking.
Scenes like this are playing out far too often on Ohio highways, according to the state’s transportation officials. They say drivers keep stopping in live lanes as if the shoulder were a suggestion and the laws of physics optional.
The Ohio Department of Transportation is pleading with drivers to stop trying to force last-second lane changes when they miss their exits
They said the solution is simple: just keep driving and take the next one.
It sounds obvious, but the roads tell a different story. Just this month near Cincinnati, a truck loaded with watermelons had to make a panic stop when a car ahead cut across several lanes to reach an exit they were about to miss.
The truck managed to stop in time, scattering watermelons across the highway but sparing anyone from serious injury. ODOT officials said the outcome could have been far worse if the driver hadn’t reacted quickly.
And that wasn’t an isolated case.
In May, a driver in Columbus stopped on the shoulder, darted across three lanes to catch an exit, and triggered a crash behind them
And a month before that, MotorBiscuit covered a red van stopped outright in the middle of I-71 in another exit scramble, causing a pileup before driving away.
Authorities tracked the driver down and charged them, but not before their decision turned a normal highway flow into chaos.
ODOT officials said they’re doing everything they can to make roads safer, and automakers keep building vehicles with more advanced safety systems. But none of that matters if drivers keep sabotaging it all with reckless decisions. The fix, they said, is free, easy, and available to everyone: just skip the exit and circle back. A few extra minutes on the road beats gambling with lives in the middle of the highway.
