Friday, September 19, 2008
By Ed Runyan
The officer driving the cruiser was hired in April but has previous experience in Newton Falls.
WARREN — State Rep. Thomas Letson, D-64th, and two Warren police officers suffered bruises when their cars collided on Mahoning Avenue during a chase involving a third vehicle.
A report filed by Deputy Milt Kellerman of the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department says Letson, a Democrat from Warren, was traveling northbound and a Warren police cruiser was southbound with its overhead lights on in pursuit of another vehicle when the collision occurred at around 8:30 p.m. Wednesday.
No one was cited in the crash, and the report gives only one clue into who was at fault: In a box marked “contributing circumstances,” Kellerman listed the cruiser for “failure to yield.” For Letson, the box is marked “none.”
Letson, when contacted Thursday, said he was a little bruised but did not lose consciousness, hit his head or suffer any cuts or broken bones.
Lt. Joseph Marhulik of the Warren Police Department said Patrolmen John W. Marks Jr. and Jason R. McCollum also suffered “minor bumps and bruises,” and were released from Forum Health Trumbull Memorial Hospital.
Marhulik said he didn’t know whether the officers would be missing any work as a result of the crash.
Letson said he believes the cause of the accident was the truck that turned in front of him onto School Street.
The truck made the turn, and the cruiser behind it turned also to follow it, “but without enough room to make the same turn,” Letson said.
Kellerman reported that Letson was unable to stop in time, striking the cruiser on its passenger side.
Both vehicles were damaged, with Letson’s Saturn sport utility vehicle being damaged in the right headlight area and the cruiser being damaged in its front- and rear-passenger door areas.
Letson said he was navigating the curve in the road just before School Street when he saw the truck and then the cruiser.
Letson said he was “already standing on the brakes as the [overhead police] lights came on,” he said.
Marhulik said McCollum, 35, the passenger in the cruiser, has worked for the department for about five to six years.
Marks, 34, was hired along with several other officers in April but has at least five years of experience with the Newton Falls Police Department before that, Marhulik said.
runyan@vindy.com