Wednesday, July 19, 2017
YOUNGSTOWN
As road construction winds down this week on Interstates 76 and 80, the head of the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said several accidents in work zones could have been avoided.
Lt. Jerad Sutton said the two biggest factors in all the crashes were a combination of speed and following too closely, which often leads to accidents, which are caused by drivers not paying attention to the circumstances around them.
This occurs despite stepped-up efforts to ticket speeders. So far this year, troopers have pulled over 5,452 vehicles on the two interstates and have written 2,363 traffic citations.
In 2017 in Mahoning County, the patrol has investigated 32 injury crashes in the construction zones and one fatal accident, as well as 155 crashes that have caused damage to property.
The most serious of those was a June 29 chain reaction accident in the westbound lanes of Interstate 76 that killed a 53-year-old New Castle, Pa., man.
On Sunday, three accidents took place in the eastbound lanes of I- 76 near state Route 534 in Jackson Township, with two people taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital with serious injuries.
Read more about the matter in Thursday's Vindicator or on Vindy.com.