Friday, September 22, 2017
WARREN — An Idylwild Street Northeast man was flown by helicopter to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital this morning after he crashed into the back of the Giant Eagle in the Elm Road Plaza.
The man, 49, told investigators that he was trying to commit suicide and had doused the inside of his car with gasoline in hopes that it would blow up on impact.
The crash damaged an electrical transformer that provided power to the Giant Eagle store and the back of the building, but it did not cause an explosion, Warren police said. Power was back on at 10:21 a.m., an Ohio Edison spokesman said
When first responders got there, the man was unresponsive, according to radio communications from the county 911 center.
The man drove at a high rate of speed along Plaza Avenue in back of the plaza and into the back of the building after also hitting a guard rail and concrete posts. A witness on Plaza Avenue said it appeared the driver was going 60 to 70 miles per hour.
A medical helicopter landed in the plaza parking lot and left with the victim at about 1:54 a.m.
The power to the Giant Eagle apparently went out and appears to be still out, according to another business in the Elm Road Plaza that is open today.
The phone at the Giant Eagle ran busy this morning.
The 12:49 crash caused the transformer to spark and arc, the Warren Fire Department said. The man was extricated from the 1984 Buick Skyhawk he was driving.
The fire department remained on the scene for about three hours.