Portage County has 15 fatal crashes so far this year, with 17 people dead

Jeff Saunders, Record-Courier
·4 min read
A Cleveland Heights woman was killed after her vehicle crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a semi truck on state Route 14 near Portage Pointe Drive in Streetsboro in July. Less than 12 hours later, a Deerfield man died in a single-car crash on Route 14 in Deerfield.
A Cleveland Heights woman was killed after her vehicle crossed the center line and crashed head-on into a semi truck on state Route 14 near Portage Pointe Drive in Streetsboro in July. Less than 12 hours later, a Deerfield man died in a single-car crash on Route 14 in Deerfield.

There was not much the semi truck driver could do before the SUV smashed head-on into his rig that July Saturday afternoon, Streetsboro police said.

The 2014 Kia Soul's driver, a 67-year-old Cleveland Heights woman, had just crossed the center line on state Route 14, just southeast of Portage Pointe Drive. The truck driver saw the SUV, stopped and tried to pull over as best he could, but the vehicle kept coming and crashed into the front of his truck. According to an accident report, the woman was wearing a lap seat belt, but not a shoulder belt.

She was later pronounced dead at UH Portage Medical Center.

Fatal crashes:Two killed in separate weekend crashes on Route 14 in Streetsboro and Deerfield

The July 16 crash was among 15 fatal crashes, with 17 deaths, so far in 2022, according to a recent Portage County Fatality Review Board media release. The board is a program of the Portage County Health District and has the task of reviewing fatal crashes in the county.

This year is on track to surpass the number of fatal crashes in Portage County during each of the previous three years. According to the Ohio State Highway Patrol, there were 16 fatal crashes in all of 2021, while there were 13 in 2020 and 14 in 2019.

Streetsboro police Lt. Rich Polivka said that while crashes are not completely avoidable, there are some things motorists can do to make them less likely and to survive them when they do happen.

"We always want people to wear their seat belts," he said. "You know, just over the course of my career, I've seen some terrible crashes where people ended up not badly injured because they wear their seat belt. The car rolls and rolls and there's belongings for hundreds of feet, things thrown out of the car, but people are still in the cars because they wore their seat belt."

He also advises drivers to pay attention to the road, not use their phones and definitely not text while driving. If a phone is needed for navigation, use the hands-free mode, said Polivka.

"I would definitely recommend that you give yourself plenty of time to get there," he added. "Those extra few seconds that you are speeding, that you gained by speeding or by making it through that yellow light, really, probably aren't worth dying for or at the very least, even the inconvenience of a minor crash."

The Streetsboro crash was the second of two fatal accidents during the same weekend in Portage County. Less than 12 hours later, a 65-year-old Deerfield man was killed after his 2007 Ford Focus went off the side of Notman Road in Deerfield, hit a ditch and overturned. The Ohio State Highway Patrol said the man was not wearing a seat belt.

Seven of this year's fatal crashes occurred during the third quarter — July, August and September — the release states. Two were in July, four in August and one in September. By comparison, there were three fatal crashes during the same time period in 2021, all in July.

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A more recent crash was when a 2008 Infiniti QX56 went off the side of Sunnybrook Road in Brimfield Township on Sept. 23. It hit an embankment and rolled several times. Its four occupants, none wearing seat belts, were ejected, the highway patrol said.

An 11-year-old boy was killed. His father, 35, the vehicle's driver, along with his sister, 13, and brother, 8, were injured.

Fatal crash:Man and son remain hospitalized following Brimfield crash that killed boy, 11

The fatality review board said its review of the seven crashes during 2022's third quarter determined that the contributing causes included driving off the road in three crashes, unsafe speed in two, one in which the driver drove left of center and one involving a lack of "assured clear distance ahead" and other violations. In four of the seven crashes, seat belts were not used.

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The at-fault drivers ranged in age from 22 to 67 and five were men.

The release said the fatality review board recommended continuous, high-visibility enforcement and traffic safety education.

Attempts at reaching a board spokeswoman for additional information were unsuccessful.

Reporter Jeff Saunders can be reached at jsaunders@recordpub.com.

This article originally appeared on Record-Courier: Fatal crashes total 15 so far in Portage County, with 17 people dead