Ohio Wrong Way Driver Kills 3

[ffemttrav]

First off, this is my first post. I live in Ohio, about 30 min west of Bowling Green, where this accident occurred. This tragedy has affected quite a few friends I know, but crap like this is a harsh reality. Here's the story taken off the net.



COLUMBUS, Ohio—A wrong-way interstate driver slammed into a car full of sorority sisters on spring break about one minute after an Ohio trooper received a report about the errant driver, according to dashboard camera video released Wednesday by the State Highway Patrol.

The footage shows the wrong-way driver seconds before the crash that killed the driver and three of the Bowling Green University students on Interstate 75 south of Toledo. The early morning crash on Friday also left two other students in critical condition.

The five Alpha Xi Delta members were in the car as they caravanned with 11 other sisters in separate cars to the Detroit airport for a trip to the Dominican Republic.

Just minutes after the crash, the video records the voice of an unidentified Alpha Xi Delta member, saying: "Sir, what can we do to help? They were with us. Those are our sisters. We were all on spring break."

"I want you to go, just go stay by the car," the trooper says. "Stay with the car, please. Go stay up there with the car."

The video shows the trooper shifting lanes to avoid the car one minute after pulling into northbound traffic to find it.

The crash happens about 10 seconds later, just after the trooper turns around. He makes it to the scene 25 seconds later.

He's heard saying, "Bowling Green, give me a squad."

As he begins to investigate, trucks are slowly stopping and pulling around.

Lt. Anne Ralston of the Patrol said the trooper was limited by the short amount of time between the call and the crash.

"It didn't really afford us the opportunity to use any other tactics," she said. "It really limited what he was able to do."

She said a goal in such instance is to first locate the threat then try to mitigate it. A number of factors are considered including time of day, amount of traffic, the road conditions, if any other officers are able to help, how easily officers will be able to get the driver to stop and the driver's condition -- such as any medical issue or impairment.

"These types of calls of one-way drivers, especially on the interstate, are very dangerous, obviously, and very unpredictable and there's really no set rules on how to handle that, just because every incident is so different," she said.

Killed in the crash were Sarah Hammond, 21, a junior from Yellow Springs, Rebekah Blakkolb, 20, a junior from Aurora and sophomore Christina Goyett, 19, from Bay City, Mich. The wrong-way driver, Winifred Lein, 69, of Perrysburg, was traveling alone and was pronounced dead at the scene.

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[Rille]

Can you hear one of the girls scream when the cop walks towards the reck..? Scary!

[luton loyal]

[Des-Rez]

Pity the girls were so young.

Seniors should find a better way to have a good time than driving the wrong way.

[thissiteisfuckedup]

fuckin stupid geriatric old cunts, seen this quite a few times , and one almost hit me !

[Trav-]

Its a shame the driver didnt live to be paralyzed from the neck down. He didnt deserve such a quick and easy death.

[kellyhound]

tragic but too many shitty drivers on the road these days.
Only if the trooper was one minute earlier it could have saved those young lives.

Ms Lein, 69, was in a 1999 Plymouth Breeze which burst into flames following the crash

Lein was cited in 2002 in Toledo Municipal Court for a lane changing violation, according to court records. A message was left at a phone listing for her.

A neighbor at the apartment complex where she lives said he didn't know Lein well but that she always seemed cheerful and waved or said hello when they crossed paths.

It appeared Lein worked nights, based on when she regularly left in the evenings, and she had recently said she was excited because she had quit smoking, said the neighbor, who would not give his name.

The accident recalled a similar tragedy 10 years ago, when six Bowling Green students were killed while returning home from a spring break trip to Florida.

[Cumulonimbus]

For fuck's sake.

[collaredgirl65]

[SSCARZZ]

What a drag............