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Police: Bad timing led to pileups
By Joe Gorman
YOUNGSTOWN
City police said a combination of bad timing and freakish weather led to a series of multiple-vehicle pileups Sunday evening on every major highway in the city.
Lt. William Ross, who heads the department’s traffic unit, said that a sudden front of ice that fell on the roads led to the accidents after 5 p.m., including a pileup of more than 30 cars on the bridge over state Route 711.
City plow crews dumped salt on the ice, but salt takes at least 30 minutes to work and because the roads were wet, they could not be pretreated, Ross said.
There were also multiple vehicle accidents on the Himrod Avenue Expressway, Madison Avenue Expressway, Interstate 680 and Shirley Road.
Ross said in his more than 20 years on the department he has never seen that many pileups at the same time. He said people definitely were driving too fast.
“They were certainly driving too fast for the conditions,” Ross said.
There were no injuries in any of the pileups, and no citations were issued, Ross said. City police received help from several departments including the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol, and the Liberty and Boardman police departments.
One casualty, however, was the fire department’s newest ladder truck, which was hit by a car when it was parked on Route 711. The damage is significant enough that the ladder portion of the truck is inoperable, and the department was trying to make arrangements Monday to have it driven to Columbus to have it evaluated further and repaired there.
The truck came into service in 2014.
Until that happens, the truck will be used to respond to emergencies because it still can be driven and the equipment can still be used. However, the ladder cannot be used, said Fire Chief John O’Neill. He said when the truck goes in for repairs, the department has a pumper truck to take its place.
O’Neill said the department still has a ladder truck at the downtown fire station and also has another aerial platform it can use. If another ladder truck is needed, then the department will have to call for mutual aid, O’Neill said.