SOUTH BLOOMFIELD, Ohio — U.S. 23 recorded 1,874 reported crashes in Pickaway County between Jan. 1, 2021, and Oct. 13, 2026 — more than any other route tracked in the county — according to Ohio State Highway Patrol data presented at a meeting on the corridor’s future, South Bloomfield Mayor Aaron Thomas said.
Thomas, in a letter posted to the village’s Facebook page, said he convened the meeting last week to bring together local, county and state officials to discuss what could be done about U.S. 23 both now and in the years ahead. The Circleville post of the Highway Patrol gave a presentation that Thomas called “probably the most eye-opening part of the meeting” because it put real numbers behind problems residents have been seeing along the corridor.
The crashes involved a wide range of factors, including deer strikes, speeding, distracted driving, impaired driving and failure to yield, Thomas said. Not every crash resulted in a serious injury or death, he said, but the volume shows the corridor deserves continued attention. Thomas said he has the full crash data from the presentation and will share a copy with anyone who asks.
A long-discussed U.S. 23 bypass remains part of the conversation, Thomas said, but he told attendees he does not personally expect a project of that scale to happen anytime soon. Instead, he asked officials to focus not just on major projects that could be five, 10 or more years away, but on smaller, more realistic improvements that could make a difference now.
Thomas first raised concerns about the corridor publicly in September, saying traffic on U.S. 23 through South Bloomfield had climbed to roughly 42,000 vehicles a day and that the intersection with State Route 752 near a Sheetz gas station was among the worst in the village. That followed an earlier meeting he had with an Ohio Department of Transportation District 6 official.
Development between South Bloomfield and Circleville continues to gain traction, Thomas said, and traffic along the corridor is not going to decrease. Officials at last week’s meeting agreed they need a closer look at a U.S. 23 study completed in 2024, he said, and ODOT District 6 shared information about programs and funding opportunities that could help with shorter-term improvements while the broader corridor continues to be studied.
Thomas said he is not promising the state will suddenly build a bypass or redesign U.S. 23, noting that projects of that size take years of planning, funding and coordination. What he can do, he said, is ask the cities, villages, townships, county officials, public safety agencies and other organizations along the corridor to keep working together and present a united front when pressing the state and ODOT for improvements in Pickaway County.
The mayor said the Pickaway Progress Partnership, a regional economic development group known as P3, has agreed to help organize another meeting involving the same officials after the Nov. 3 election to continue the discussion. Participants at last week’s meeting included the village of South Bloomfield, Harrison Township Fire Department, the Pickaway County Sheriff’s Office, the Highway Patrol, the city of Circleville, the Mid-Ohio Regional Planning Commission, the Central Ohio Rural Planning Organization, P3, ODOT, the Pickaway County commissioners’ office, state Rep. Brian Stewart and state Sen. Michele Reynolds, Thomas said.
“I will not let the ball drop on this,” Thomas said. “I believe cooperation and coordination between local governments and agencies is how things actually get accomplished.”
The information contained in this story was obtained from the Village of South Bloomfield.
