Cleveland Personal Injury Law Blog

An Omsted Falls Middle School student died and another was injured on Sunday from injuries sustained in a two-car accident in Mentor. A sixth grader at Omsted Falls was killed as a result of the crash. Her brother, an eighth grader, was critically injured in the crash. The 13-year-old was transported to Rainbow's Babies & Children's Hospital where he was in critical but stable condition.

According to Mentor Police, the car accident occurred when a Dodge minivan and a Chevy SUV collided around 4:30 p.m. Sunday on Heisley Road in Mentor, near the entrance ramp of State Route 2. The Dodge minivan was traveling northbound on Heisley when the driver attempted to turn westbound on Route 2 on the entrance ramp. While attempting the turn, the Dodge minivan collided with an oncoming SUV carrying five people.

An Ohio man was killed and three more hospitalized after a four-car accident on Monday in Parkman Township. The multi-car accident occurred around 5:52 a.m. near the intersection of Route 528 and Farley Road.

According to Ohio State Highway Patrol, the car accident occurred when a 1999 Buick Regal, driven by a 43-year-old Ohio man, was traveling on Route 528 and strayed left of the center of the highway. As a result, the Buick hit a 1994 Dodge Ram 3500 that was traveling in the opposite direction. The initial collision caused the Ram to be knocked into the northbound lanes and was struck by an oncoming Jeep Liberty. The Jeep collided with the passenger side of the Ram. Additionally, a Ford F-150 that was traveling behind the Jeep swerved off the road to avoid the crash and hit the trailer being hauled by the Ram truck.

Two truck accidents on the Ohio Turnpike last week were caused by drivers that fell asleep at the wheel while driving.

Last Monday, a Mack truck hauling three trailers driving on Interstate 80 in Streetsboro crashed into the rear of a Ford Focus, killing the driver and critically injuring her two sons in the crash. The Focus caught on fire and was engulfed by flames. The driver was pronounced dead on the scene. Police later found out that the driver of the truck had fallen asleep at the wheel, causing his rig to slam into the Focus. Charges are pending against the truck driver.

In another truck accident on the Ohio Turnpike on Wednesday, only two days after the crash detailed above, a truck hauling hydrochloric acid flipped over and forced the evacuation of 20 homes nearby. After interviewing the driver, authorities concluded that the driver had fallen asleep at the wheel while driving.

As briefly mentioned in our previous post, an hour after the Ohio Turnpike truck accident on Monday another truck accident occurred on I-271. The crash occurred around 12:54 p.m. when two cars collided on I-271 in Oakwood just north of the Alexander Road overpass.

As firefighters were attempting to clear the two vehicles involved out of the wreckage, an 18-wheel tanker truck skidded nearly 270 feet and slammed into the fire truck on the side of the road. The collision caused the tanker truck to spill nearly 200 gallons of gasoline across the northbound lanes of I-271. This accident forced emergency crews to close two miles on the highway for about six hours.

Two major truck accidents caused huge problems for Cleveland commuters on Monday. The accidents occurred on Interstate 271 and the Ohio Turnpike, resulting in one driver's death, two closed highways and hundreds of stranded commuters stuck in traffic.

The crash on I-80, which occurred in Streetsboro, involved a Mack truck hauling three trailers that struck the rear of a Ford Focus driven by Susan Slattery, 47, of Maryland. The collision caused the Focus to hit a freight truck driven by Jonathan Wiedman and then four more vehicles before slamming into a concrete barrier. Debris from the car struck a fifth vehicle during the crash.

A car accident yesterday on the Ohio Turnpike in Shalersville left one woman dead and another injured. Sandra Pittenger, age 59, of Alliance, was killed when her vehicle ran off the road when trying to avoid another vehicle on the road.

According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, Pittenger was driving westbound in a 1999 Lincoln Continental when she drove off the right side of the Turnpike. This caused her vehicle to strike a ditch, a fence and a tree. The car accident occurred around 10:30 p.m. When the vehicle finally came to a stop, it caught on fire.

A former Missouri truck driver pled guilty Monday to negligent homicide in the deaths of 10 people as the result of a truck accident in northeastern Oklahoma. Donald L. Creed, 77, of Willard, Mo., will serve 30 days in jail and 10 years on probation for his actions as part of a plea deal. 

The truck accident occurred when Creed was driving a tractor-trailer rig for Associated Wholesale Grocers on June 26, 2009. Creed's rig slammed into multiple vehicles that had been stopped for another highway accident near Miami on Interstate 44. It took emergency responders multiple hours to get victims of the crash free from their vehicles. Many of the vehicles were mangled together in the crash.

A recent study conducted by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) found that if trucks were mandated to be equipped with stability control systems, the U.S. could prevent nearly 3,500 rollover truck accidents and save an estimated 106 lives each year. Researchers found that almost 4,400 injuries a year could be prevented by equipping commercial trucks with stability control systems. This conclusion was based on the tests of stability systems conducted with the help of researchers at the University of Michigan.

Currently, all new passenger vehicles are required to have this type of technology installed but not for commercial vehicles. The NHTSA hopes that these findings on the potential benefits for requiring these systems for tractor trailers will help encourage legislators, both nationally and in Ohio, to require this by the end of the year.