WARREN, Ohio - Ohio State Highway Patrol Troopers are seeing a higher number of crashes over Thanksgiving and Black Friday. Troopers said with the holiday travel and the snow they’ve responded to several cars that drifted off the road and into ditches. 

“It’s been crazy,” Sergeant Matthew Langston with the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. “A lot of people don't slow down. A lot of people like to slam on the breaks which causes them to drift off the road or if they're going at a high rate of speed and they can't stop in time for something and they rear end somebody.”

Troopers in Trumbull County are patrolling the high speed areas more this holiday including Interstate 80 and State Routes 11, 82 and 5. 

They're on the look out for high speeds, reckless driving, seat belt usage, distracted driving and impaired driving. 

“Impaired driving is always an issue in Trumbull County and across the state of Ohio…we highly focus on it at a much higher level during the holidays,” Sergeant Langston said. 

But what's kept troopers the busiest is accidents across the valley. 

Late Thursday night, snow and ice caused a five car crash near Columbiana and closed southbound lanes of State Route 11 and early Friday PennDOT reduced speed on I-80 to 45 miles per hour in Mercer County because of the winter weather.

As the snow continues into part of the weekend troopers said drivers need to be cautious on the highways and slow down.

“When there's a light dusting over the road it seems like it’s just a little bit of snow but there can be some ice underneath that so make sure you slow down and be careful,” Sergeant Langston said.