Cops look for hit and run car in early morning 680 crash

Staff report

YOUNGSTOWN

Police are asking the public for help in locating a vehicle that struck and killed a woman on Interstate 680 on Monday morning.

The Mahoning County Coroner’s Office identified the woman as 20-year-old Nicole L. Baird of Youngstown.

Officers at the department’s Accident Investigation Unit said Baird was driving north on the highway near the Shirley Road exit about 5:30 a.m. when she hit a bag of leaves that was lying in the road.

Investigators said the leaves were lodged under the woman’s car. She stopped in the median in the left-hand lane and got out of her car to try to dislodge them when she was hit by another vehicle. Police said the driver of the first car stayed at the scene after the accident.

The impact knocked the woman into the southbound lanes, where she was hit by another vehicle that did not stop. That is the vehicle investigators are looking for.

Police said anyone with information on that vehicle can call the AIU at 330-742-8946.

Officer Brian Booksing said the leaves may have been smoking and perhaps that is why Baird stopped where she did instead of pulling off the road in the right-hand lane.

Booksing said that if you are driving and need to pull over, go into the right-hand lane and pull off the road there, where you are safer from traffic.

The accident closed down portions of both lanes of the highway for several hours. The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s accident reconstruction unit also is assisting police.

The coroner’s office said Baird died instantly of massive head injuries.

This is the third fatal accident the city has seen in a span of 10 days.

Baird was a 2012 Struthers High School graduate. Struthers High Principal Mary Ann Meadows recalled Baird as a bright student. She called the accident a tragedy.

“She was a real nice girl,” Meadows said.