Smash-up in front of courthouse

YOUNGSTOWN — A   disoriented but conscious woman was pulled from a shattered car Wednesday evening after a collision with a tractor-trailer at Front and Market streets.

The driver of the truck, David Sowa, 42, of Youngstown, told The Vindicator the woman ran a red light, striking him at high speed. The collision nearly flipped the truck, said Sowa, who crashed into a granite pillar on the grounds of the Mahoning County Courthouse after losing control. “I was literally on two wheels,” he said.

Dee Stoops, 70, of Boardman, said she witnessed the accident as she was waiting at a traffic light. The woman driver, whose identity was not available late Wednesday, was lucky to be alive, said Stoops.

“I never saw a car look that bad,” she said. “She almost went under the truck.”