Eleven people were killed on Ohio roadways this Thanksgiving Holiday, the fewest deaths in four years. 17 people were killed during the same period in 2011 and 18 in 2010.

"Unfortunately we did still have 11 fatalities on our roadways and those were in eight separate crashes," said Ohio State Highway Patrol Lt. Anne Ralston.

The lack of seat belts was one trend seen in all 11 of the traffic deaths. Ralston says one of the deaths was a motorcyclist who wasn't wearing a helmet.

The weekend got off to a deadly start when four people were killed in a single vehicle crash in Warren County. Alcohol is suspected in the Wednesday morning wreck.

"We are encouraged by the reduction of fatalities this weekend - however, motorists need to remember that wearing a safety belt is the single most important thing they can do to protect themselves during a crash," said Colonel John Born, Patrol superintendent. "Simple things like wearing a safety belt or designating a sober driver can go a long way in ensuring these tragedies don’t occur."

The deadly crashes happened in every region of the state except central Ohio.

Statewide the number of crashes decreased by 3 percent from 978 last year to 949 this year.

The Patrol arrested 459 drivers for OVI during the holiday weekend, down from 489 in 2011.