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Cause of death: Blunt-force injuries
Photo
Joshua Maiden.
By Ed Runyan
NILES
The Mahoning County Coroner’s Office and Niles Police Department say Joshua D. Maiden, 24, of Warren Avenue, Niles, died of blunt- force injuries to his chest almost immediately after he collided with the back of a semitrailer Oct. 28.
Dr. Joseph Ohr, Mahoning County forensic pathologist, said drugs and alcohol are not believed to have contributed to the accident. Final determination of that will occur after final toxicology results are received, Ohr said.
Maiden was traveling east on Warren Avenue heading toward downtown Niles to take his 6-year-old son to school in Mineral Ridge at the time of the 8:30 a.m. crash.
The boy, who was in a car seat, suffered minor injuries. Maiden was not wearing a seat belt.
The single-cab pickup truck sustained significant damage.
The semitrailer driver was not injured.
Maiden’s pickup truck hit the back of a semitrailer that had stopped at the Hyde Avenue traffic light.
There was no indication that Maiden tried to stop because there were no skid marks, police said.
That fact has led Maiden’s sister, Rihab Daghara of Boardman, to conclude that glare from the rising sun prevented Maiden from seeing that the semi had stopped for the traffic light.
The glare “could have been a factor,” agrees Patrolman John Marhulik, Niles traffic officer.
Marhulik said he doesn’t know how fast Maiden’s pickup truck was traveling.
Niles recorded two traffic fatalities in 2010. The other one was Will Jury, 36, of Mineral Ridge, who lost control of his motorcycle on Salt Springs Road near state Route 46.
Mahoning County conducted Maiden’s autopsy because he was pronounced dead at St. Elizabeth Health Center.