No jail time for fatal accident

No jail time for fatal accident

YOUNGSTOWN

A 21-year-old Youngstown State University student from Alliance has been sentenced to five years’ probation with 250 hours of community service and given a five-year driver’s license suspension following a fatal Feb. 14 accident at Fifth and Rayen avenues.

Samantha Yoder was also fined $1,150 on misdemeanor charges of vehicular homicide and failure to obey a traffic control device. She will not serve any jail time.

Yoder drew the sentence this afternoon from Judge Robert Douglas of Youngstown Municipal Court.

Yoder had earlier pleaded guilty in the crash that killed 45-year-old Susan Welsh and injured her 79-year-old mother, Elaine Welsh.

Susan Welsh was a passenger in a car driven by her mother, which was westbound on Rayen at about 3 p.m., when it was struck by the car Yoder was driving, which was southbound on Fifth Avenue near YSU. Yoder went through a red light while talking on her cellular phone, according to her lawyer, Derek Lowry.

Judge Douglas ordered Yoder to publicly advocate during her community service, through an organization, such as the American Automobile Association, for non-use of hand-held cellular phones while driving.

Kathleen Thompson, an assistant city prosecutor, had recommended Yoder serve five years’ probation, pay the maximum fine of $1,150, and suffer a five-year driver’s license suspension.