Fatal accidents increase by three in city in ‘14
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
The city had three more fatal traffic accidents in 2014 than it did 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 about 5:30 a.m. in the southbound lanes of the highway.
Investigators have said she was driving north on the highway near the Shirley Road exit when she ran over a bag of leaves.
Baird pulled over in the left lane near the median because the bag had become lodged under her car, and the car may have been smoking.
She got out of the car and was struck by a vehicle traveling north, which flipped her over the concrete median into the southbound lanes, where she was hit again and killed.
The driver of the northbound vehicle stopped, but the driver of the southbound vehicle did not, police said. Police believe they have found the second vehicle that hit Baird and are waiting for the patrol before deciding what, if any charges should be filed.
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.
Witnesses said Faith and a friend were playing and rolling down a hill on the side of the school that abuts East High Avenue as the bus was traveling west. The bus stopped when Faith stopped rolling on the sidewalk. The bus then moved forward, but Faith stood up and perhaps became dizzy, fell into the street and was run over.
Investigators have said the bus driver was not driving fast when the accident occurred and had swerved to try to avoid hitting the girl. The state patrol also is helping in that case.
Besides the fatal accidents, Booksing said the biggest issue the AIU faces are hit-skip accidents, whether they are major accidents or fender benders, where someone in an accident drives away before police arrive.