Officer ‘critical’ with burns in crash

The cruiser’s gas tank
exploded when it was hit.

By PETER H. MILLIKEN

VINDICATOR STAFF WRITER

YOUNGSTOWN — A 12-year veteran of the Austintown Police Department remained in critical condition Sunday night in the Akron Children’s Hospital burn unit after an early-morning traffic accident on North Meridian Road in the city.

Officer Ross J. Linert was taken to St. Elizabeth Health Center and flown by helicopter from there to Akron after the 1:08 a.m. Sunday accident, which the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating.

The driver of the other car, Adrien N. Foutz, 22, of Girard, was treated and released at St. Elizabeth Health Center. The OSHP has charged her with driving while intoxicated and aggravated vehicular assault, and she is in Mahoning County Jail pending her appearance in Youngstown Municipal Court on Tuesday morning.

The marked Ford Crown Victoria police car Linert was driving was rear-ended by the 1995 Cadillac Deville Foutz was driving, setting the cruiser ablaze, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post. Officer Linert got out of the cruiser on his own, Austintown police said.

Austintown Police Chief Robert Gavalier, who visited Linert at St. Elizabeth and in Akron, said the officer, who has burns over 30 percent of his body, is on a ventilator to keep his airways open because burn victims’ bodies swell. Gavalier said the cruiser’s gasoline tank exploded from the impact.

“It appears that she was traveling at a very high rate of speed,” Gavalier said of Foutz. An OSHP accident reconstructionist is working on the investigation.

The Ford Panther line of cars, which includes the Crown Victoria, has its gasoline tank outside the protection of the car’s rear axle and within the car’s “crush zone,” according to the Center for Auto Safety, a Washington, D.C.-based consumer advocacy group founded in 1970 by Ralph Nader and Consumers Union.

At least 30 law enforcement officers have burned to death after their Crown Victoria patrol cars were rear-ended, and hundreds more civilians have died in Crown Victorias, Lincoln Town Cars and Grand Marquis, the center said.

Officer George Brentar, 49, a 22-year veteran of the Euclid, Ohio, police department, died Oct. 10 when his Crown Victoria police car hydroplaned, spun into a pole and burst into flames as he began tracking down a speeder. Off-duty Erie, Pa., police, who stopped to assist him, were unable to save him.