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Crash kills 1 on I-76
By Elise Franco
On one of the heaviest travel days of the year, the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Canfield Post stayed busy dealing with two traffic accidents — including a fatality.
Troopers responded to the first accident at about 5 a.m. on Interstate 76 westbound just east of Bailey Road in North Jackson, when one tractor trailer hit the back of another. Both were traveling west on I-76.
“The front of the second truck became lodged in the back of the first,” an OSHP dispatcher said, “It was a mess basically.”
Jason J. Thomas, of Nicholasville, Ky., was pronounced dead at the scene. He was a passenger in the sleeper of the second truck. The driver of that truck, Steven. B. Stout, of Somerset, Ky., was flown by helicopter to St. Elizabeth Health Center in Youngstown. He was in critical condition Wednesday afternoon, according to the highway patrol.
Thomas’s cousin, Bill Thomas, of East Liverpool, said he heard about the accident on the news Wednesday afternoon.
“Jason was a good guy,” he said. “He wanted to learn to drive truck, so I helped him with that.”
Bill Thomas, a member of the Industrial Truckers Association, said he spent time helping his cousin study for his commercial drivers license.
The driver of the first truck, Sampson Ananing, of Lawrenceville, Ga., wasn’t injured.
Interstate 80 westbound to the accident site at I-76 was closed for about five hours Wednesday to give crews time for clean up.
The detours brought traffic to a near-halt on Interstate 680 northbound from Meridian Road to the Mahoning Avenue exit off the state Route 11 southbound interchange in Austintown.
Just a few hours later, at about noon Wednesday, OSHP was called to the scene of another accident on Interstate 680 southbound near the Meridian Road exit.
The car rolled over and stopped in the median, an OSHP dispatcher said.
The 20-year-old female driver and her passenger, also a 20-year-old female, had minor, visible injuries, according to the highway patrol. Their names were not released Wednesday.
They were both transported to St. Elizabeth Health Center’s emergency room in Austintown, a trooper said.
Both accidents remain under investigation by the highway patrol.