Crash report says driver in fatal Howland accident had high alcohol level

Staff report

WARREN

The state patrol reports Kyle B. Munson, 30, of North River Road had a blood-alcohol level of 0.166 after an April 19 head-on crash on North River Road in Howland that killed one woman and seriously injured another. That is more than twice the legal limit of 0.08.

An Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report also says Munson had an odor of alcoholic beverage emanating from him when a trooper questioned him at the scene.

Munson told a trooper he left work in North Jackson a couple of hours earlier and then went to a friend’s house. Munson’s eyes were bloodshot and glassy, and he was slurring his words, the trooper said.

Not-guilty pleas were entered for Munson Monday in Warren Municipal Court to aggravated vehicular assault with alcohol and aggravated vehicular homicide. He was released on $20,000 bond. Judge Thomas Gysegem suspended Munson’s driving privileges.

On Friday, Annette Maraczi, 68, of Mecca Township died in Cleveland University Hospitals because of complications from injuries she suffered in the crash.

She was a passenger in a car driven by Betty Geiwitz, 75, of North Bloomfield, who also was seriously injured with fractures, bruising and lacerations, the accident report says.

Munson was eastbound on North River Road when he traveled left of center east of Larchmont Avenue and struck a westbound vehicle the women were in. Munson was not injured.