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Elderly man has "serious injuries" after 224/11 crash
By ROBERT CONNELLY
CANFIELD
Authorities continue to investigate an accident Thursday involving four vehicles that left an elderly man with serious but nonlife-threatening injuries.
The man was transported to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital from the crash site, U.S. Route 224 at Fairground Boulevard and the southbound off-ramp for state Route 11. He was one of two people transported from a silver Cadillac that was traveling west on Route 224 when a black, four-door car traveling eastbound tried to turn left onto southbound state Route 11, Sgt. Brad Bucey of the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol explained.
In total, four vehicles with six occupants were involved in the crash, and three people were taken to the hospital. After the crash site was cleared, Bucey said no tickets had been issued to the involved parties. Two of the four vehicles involved were sitting on the Route 11 off-ramp and were struck by the Cadillac, which rested in a lane on the ramp that is closed with road cones.
Bucey said authorities were called to the crash at about 11:50 a.m. OSHP troopers, Canfield City police and Mahoning County deputy sheriffs all assisted in directing traffic and in the clean-up. Lane LifeTrans and Cardinal Joint Fire District personnel treated people at the scene. Traffic began flowing better after being congested for about 90 minutes.
“The construction zone really had nothing to do with the crash,” Bucey said. “This intersection is busy every day [in the early afternoon].”
The driver of the black car “just didn’t see the other car,” he said.
The intersection of Routes 224 and 11 is filled with road cones and lane restrictions as the 224 bridge is being replaced and widened over Route 11. That project also includes a widening of nearby Raccoon Road where it intersects with 224, as well as adding a lane to the Route 11 southbound exit onto Route 224.
The $6.5 million project is to be completed in October.
An employee at the BP gas station at Route 224 and Fairground Boulevard, catty-corner from the accident site, said business has been “a little bit slower” since construction began weeks ago.
“I heard the boom, but I didn’t see it,” the employee said of Thursday’s accident. “You could tell there had been an accident.”