Youngstown logs 3 more fatal crashes this year than in 2013

YOUNGSTOWN

The city had three more fatal traffic accidents in 2014 than in 2013.

Investigators with the police department’s Accident Investigation Unit recorded 12 traffic fatalities in 2014, up from nine in 2013.

In most of the accidents, excessive speed was the cause, said Patrolman Brian Booksing of the AIU.

Additionally, the fatal accidents seemed to be spread pretty evenly around the city, Booksing said.

Two of the accidents that attracted the most attention last year happened not so much because of negligence or criminal activity but a series of unforeseen circumstances that all came together at the wrong time, Booksing said,

In both cases, the department is waiting for the Ohio State Highway Patrol to finish analyzing evidence they submitted before deciding if charges should be filed.

The first case is the death of 20-year-old Nicole Baird on Oct. 6 on Interstate 680. Baird was killed at about 5:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the highway after she stepped out of her car.

The second case is the death of 14-year-old Faith McCullough-Wooster, a freshman at East High School who was run over by a city school bus after school Nov. 12.

Besides the fatal accidents, Booksing said the biggest issue the AIU faces are hit-skip accidents.

Read the complete story in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.