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3 die in I-80 crash
Charges pending in Hubbard accident that killed Warren woman, 2 Arizonans
STAFF report
HUBBARD
An investigation continues today into the cause of a three-vehicle accident that killed three people on Interstate 80 in Hubbard Township.
The accident involved two tractor-trailers and a sport-utility vehicle as traffic was slowing down for roadwork in the eastbound lane Monday afternoon. The crash site is across the median from the truck scales between the Hubbard and Belmont Avenue exits.
Shirley Gilmore, 66, of Warren, and her two passengers, David Westenfelder, 56, and Wendy Frost, no age available, both of Surprise, Ariz., were pronounced dead at the scene.
Gilmore was stopped in traffic in the right lane of eastbound Interstate 80 behind a FedEx tractor-tractor driven by Brian Pepson, 35, of Jermyn, Pa.
Both vehicles were stopped in an area of road construction.
A tractor-trailer, driven by Eugene R. White, 62, of Shiloh, Ohio, failed to stop, striking Gilmore’s vehicle in the rear at 1:50 p.m. Monday, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Warren Post.
White sustained minor injuries and refused treatment. Pepson wasn’t injured.
The crash remains under investigation, and charges are pending, the patrol said.
Traffic on I-80 was stopped between the accident site and Belmont Avenue, a distance of about 3 miles. The Ohio Department of Transportation diverted traffic after that point.
The Trumbull County coroner examined the bodies in a tent set up along the highway.
The ODOT reported the eastbound lanes were reopened to traffic shortly after 8 p.m. Monday.
Monday’s accident was the second fatal crash in two months involving tractor-trailers and rear-end collisions in Trumbull County. Three Marine recruits died March 31 after a tractor-trailer driven by Donald P. Williams Jr., of Austintown, hit the back of the Marines’ car on state Route 5 in Leavittsburg.
The crash killed the three back-seat passengers — Zachary A. Nolen, 19, of Mineral Ridge and Newton Falls; Joshua A. Sherbourne, 21, of Southington, and Michael T. Theodore Jr., 19, of Howland.
That accident is still under investigation.