Ohio State Highway Patrol cracking down on drunk driving this New Year's Eve

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Troopers with the Ohio State Highway Patrol are cracking down on drivers breaking the law this holiday weekend. They're focusing on OVIs, seatbelts and other violations.

Sgt. Chris Colbert says usually there are fewer people traveling for New Year's than Christmas.

"But obviously New Year's is a weekend associated with a lot of drinking and stuff," Colbert said.

Colbert says anyone who plans on drinking during the holiday needs to plan ahead, and have a designated driver, or another form of transportation.

"Designated driver doesn't actually mean the person who drank less but somebody who is actually sober. There's really no reason with Uber and everything else out there for people to make bad choices, but we know sometimes they do," said Colbert.

Troopers say nine people died in crashes throughout Ohio during the Christmas holiday.

Of those who died last weekend, three were OVI related and three were not wearing seatbelts.

"I've seen plenty of fatal crashes where it didn't matter whether somebody was belted or not, and I've been to ones where it could have absolutely saved somebody's life, " said Colbert.

Last year during the New Year's Holiday there were six deadly crashes across the state.

Troopers say they have a zero tolerance policy, so if you're caught breaking the law, you will get pulled over.