SPEEDING Patrol will monitor area near career center

The patrol is hearing that kids on their way to school often speed.
CANFIELD -- For the next 30 days or so, the Ohio State Highway Patrol will be monitoring motorists' speed on the road where two 16-year-old girls died in a one-car crash, a commander says.
Lt. Christopher M. Heverly said four troopers and a Mahoning County deputy sheriff positioned along Palmyra Road wrote six to seven speeding tickets within a 30-minute period Monday morning. He said the speed on Palmyra is 45 mph.
The increased presence for the coming weeks will allow the patrol to determine speed patterns, he said.
Residents along the county road say speeding has been a problem.
Fatal accident
Last Thursday, Allyson D. Farnsworth of Alliance and Carrie Jo Quinn of Beloit died after the car they were in struck a utility pole on South Palymra, just south of U.S. Route 224, about 7:50 a.m. The girls, both West Branch High School juniors, were on their way to attend classes at the Mahoning County Career and Technical Center on Palmyra.
Heverly said the patrol's investigation of the crash continues but no witnesses have come forward and no charges are pending. An accident reconstructionist will try to determine the minimum speed the 1996 Pontiac Sunfire, driven by Allyson, was going, he said.
He said investigators have been told that kids on their way to the career center often speed, a sort of game, to see who can get there quicker.
One such vehicle that traveled the road Thursday morning has been identified but it wasn't directly involved in the crash, Heverly said, adding he doesn't believe one driver caused the other to speed. He said there were likely others speeding, too.