37 died in 2022 county crashes | News, Sports, Jobs
YOUNGSTOWN — As warmer days return, it’s natural for drivers to spend more time behind the wheel, especially for pleasure trips.
Last May, that pleasure was tainted by a high number of fatal crashes in Mahoning County, especially for drivers and passengers of motorcycles.
Seven people died in May 2022 in motor vehicle crashes in the county. It was one reason 34 fatal motor vehicle crashes in the county killed 37 people in 2022, according to data from the Ohio Department of Public Safety.
It was the highest annual number of fatal crashes and deaths countywide since at least 2018.
Last August, Lt. Brian Holt of the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol called May a “terrible month” for Mahoning County fatalities — but said he did not know a reason for the “spike.”
One factor, however, appeared to be the number of motorcycle fatalities. The year ended with Mahoning County having eight fatal motorcycle crashes — double the number from the previous year.
Two such crashes were in six weeks of each other — one April 15 in Austintown that killed a man, and one May 30 in Berlin Township that killed a man and woman from Windham.
BIG INCREASE
The 34 fatal crashes in Mahoning County in 2022 was a big increase over the previous year when 21 took place. It also was higher than 15 fatal crashes in 2018 (19 deaths), 22 fatal crashes in 2019 (25 deaths), 18 fatal crashes 2020 (18 deaths) and 21 fatal crashes in 2021 (21 deaths).
But here is some good news: Mahoning County has not yet recorded a single fatal crash in 2023, which is unusual.
Ohio Department of Public Safety data indicates that over the past three years, 24 fatal crashes in Mahoning County have occurred during the months of January, February, March and April.
May has the distinction of having the most traffic fatalities in Mahoning County of any month over the past three years with 14 — seven in 2022, five in 2021 and two in 2020. The next highest number is January when there were 10 — two in 2022, three in 2021 and five in 2020. Eight took place in August — four in 2022, two in 2021 and two in 2020.
The averages for the remainder of the months was seven during three years in April and September, five over three years in December and March; four over three years in June, July and November; three over three years in October; and two over three years in February.
POST COMMANDER
Lt. Eric Brown, commander of the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol since January, said May can be a bad month for traffic fatalities, but June, July and August also are considered deadly. They are sometimes called the “100 deadliest days,” he said.
It takes in Memorial Day, July 4th and Labor Day, when “a lot of people drink and party, and unfortunately a lot of people make bad decisions that lead to impairment and getting behind the wheel and sometimes it results in a fatality.”
He said three ways are available to avoid becoming a statistic: Don’t drive impaired, don’t drive distracted and wear a seat belt. “If you do those three things, you are definitely going to increase your odds of surviving or not being involved in a traffic crash,” he said.
Brown said the springtime is especially dangerous for motorcyclists. “A lot of times in the spring, the weather gets warmer, people get cabin fever from being cooped up all winter, and they want to get out and enjoy the beautiful weather.
“A lot of people are getting their motorcycles out. There is no doubt weather plays an important part. When it gets warm, they are out on their motorcycles, they are in their vehicles and they are driving around.”
Brown said he believes the zero fatalities so far in 2023 could be “luck,” and described two crashes in recent months in Mahoning County in which the people involved were fortunate not to have died — individuals who wore no seat belt and were involved in violent crashes.
For instance, two juveniles were in a small pickup truck traveling fast in Canfield Township when it was “ripped in half, and these guys survived,” Brown said. A female was seriously injured this year but survived a terrible crash on state Route 11.
SOME EXAMPLES
Among the eight fatal motorcycle crashes in Mahoning County last year:
• On April 15, Angelica Burns, then 26, of Fifth Avenue in Liberty, turned left into the path of Stephen L. Paynter, 54, of Austintown, who was traveling north on state Route 46 in Austintown at Interstate 80 on his Harley-Davidson.
Paynter was killed. Burns was sentenced in January to five days in the Mahoning County jail, 80 hours of community service, two years of probation and a $750 fine;.
• On May 30, Joseph and Christie Olson, of Windham, were killed in a similar crash on U.S. Route 224 at Bedell Road, Berlin Center, on the western edge of Mahoning County near Berlin Lake. Joseph was 62, and Christie was 60.
According to a highway patrol crash report, a 17-year-old Deerfield teen was driving a pickup truck and the Olsons were riding their Harley-Davidson. The Olsons were traveling east on Route 224, and the teen was traveling west on 224. The teen failed to yield making the left turn at Bedell Road, causing the motorcycle to overturn and strike the juvenile’s truck, a crash report states.
The driver was 17 and pleaded “true” in Mahoning County Juvenile Court to two counts of misdemeanor vehicular homicide in November.
Judge Theresa Dellick placed the teen on probation and ordered him to participate in two programs — trauma informed counseling and a victim impact program with a goal of having the youth become more empathetic to the victims.
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