Staff photo / Ed Runyan A Youngstown man, 51, died when his car went over the curb at high speed where Belle Vista Avenue meets Salt Springs Road on Youngstown’s West Side and crashed into the side of this home on Salt Springs Road Sept. 4, causing extensive damage to the house. The foundation of the house moved a couple of inches, and the home was demolished soon afterwards.

You could almost say that the number of fatal pedestrian-related crashes in 2024 accounts for the increase in the number of fatal crashes in Mahoning County.

There were 17 fatal crashes in 2024, up seven from 10 fatal crashes in 2023. However, there were six fatal pedestrian crashes in 2024, and there were none in 2023.

The year when traffic fatalities really jumped off the page was 2022, when there were 34. That year, it seems almost all types of fatal crashes had a high number — 18 OVI-related fatal crashes and eight motorcycle-related fatal crashes, for instance. Officials were hard-pressed to give a reason the numbers were so high other than May of 2022 being “terrible,” with seven fatal crashes.

But after fatal crashes dropped to 10 in 2023, some ideas were offered for what brought them down — the start of the state’s texting and driving law, traffic blitzes by the Canfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol and a substantial drop in fatal crashes in Youngstown.

2024 FATAL PEDESTRIAN CRASHES

The fatal pedestrian crashes in 2024 started March 11, when James Stehura of Austintown struck pedestrian Linda Adams, 66, as she walked on Lancaster Drive in Austintown. Stehura had consumed alcohol at a nearby bar prior to the crash. Stehura, 50, left the scene but was later identified. He recently was sentenced to six years in prison. Adams was married and was an Austintown Fitch High School graduate.

Less than a month later, April 3, Catherine L. Ruggly, 48, of Austintown, was walking east near Oyster Road in Smith Township near Sebring just before 9 p.m. when someone in a sport utility vehicle also traveling east struck her, and she landed in a watery ditch. The SUV continued east toward Sebring. Ruggly was pronounced dead at Aultman Hospital in Canton. The driver has never been identified.

Similarly, a woman, 61, who was listed as “homeless” but also was associated with the village of Columbiana, was killed in a June 8 crash at South and Lucius avenues on Youngstown’s South Side.

A crash report stated that the woman was walking across South Avenue at 11:44 p.m. when an unknown person struck her and drove away, south on South Avenue. The vehicle was believed to be a green Kawasaki motorcycle. The woman died a couple of hours later at the hospital.

Her obituary said she was an Austintown Fitch High School graduate who worked as a restaurant server, attended a church in Columbiana and had three children and eight grandchildren. The driver has not been identified. The death was ruled an accident because of trauma associated with a motorcycle accident.

On July 26, Sean Baran, 35, was killed as he walked across Market Street at Fairview Avenue, not far from his home, about noon. He was a beloved Youngstown and regional musician who graduated cum laude from Youngstown State University’s Dana School of Music with a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in music performance.

The driver of the car, who was driving at or below the speed limit, was not charged. He said the pedestrian ran out in front of his car. There was no stop sign for traffic on Market Street at that location. It was not clear whether substances found in Baran’s body impaired him, officials said.

At about 9:30 p.m. Aug. 4, Rita Barbush, 87, was fatally injured along U.S. Route 224 at Diana Drive in Poland when a car struck her as she crossed Route 224. An Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report states that Barbush “walked into the westbound lane of U.S. 224 and was struck” by the car. It was being driven by an 18-year-old New Castle, Pa., man, who apparently was not charged with any offense.

Barbush’s obituary said she was killed in front of her home and was “an icon to many in the Poland area as the 87-year-old lady who meticulously maintained her immaculate yard.” She also “became a fixture on Route 224 as people walked or drove by her home.”

At 8:44 p.m. Nov. 1, Jeffery B. Ebright, 47, of Lowellville, was struck by a car in front of 2100 Poland Avenue in Youngstown as he was walking in the road eastbound in the middle of the eastbound lane, according to a Youngstown police crash report.

The report states that Ebright was originally riding in a car with his wife, and they got into an argument. Ebright got out and walked east on Poland Avenue. His wife drove the car east on Poland Avenue and turned around to pick up Ebright.

But an eastbound car “did not see Jeff Ebright walking in the middle of the roadway until it was too late” and struck Ebright, the report states. The driver, 32, appears not to have been charged with any offense.

UNUSUAL CRASH

One of the more unusual crash deaths last year was the Sept. 4 death of a man, 51, whose gray 2012 Chevy Traverse crashed into a house at 1273 Salt Springs Road in Youngstown after it was driven over the curb at high speed where Belle Vista Avenue meets Salt Springs Road on Youngstown’s West Side. The car crashed into the side of the house.

The man was found in the SUV, which was fully inside of the house. At about the same time as the crash, about 9 p.m., a woman reported to an officer on patrol that a man fired a shot at her at a business where she worked on Mahoning Avenue near Belle Vista Avenue.

The woman approached the Youngstown officer in his cruiser on Mahoning Avenue to tell him about the man, who was now in his car not far away, a police report stated. The officer chased the vehicle, which the officer said was a gray or silver SUV, north on Belle Vista Avenue, but the vehicle got away. Later, the officer learned that the driver was found inside his car, crashed into 1273 Salt Springs Road, and he had died.

After failing to capture the driver, the officer returned to the woman. She said the man asked her if she worked at the business, and she said yes, and he started yelling at her. She said she opened the door for him to leave.

He pulled out a revolver and shot at her, the report states. She reported no injury. She walked out of the business and saw the officer at the traffic light and approached him, pointing to a gray SUV, the report states. That is when the officer chased after the vehicle. The car was far ahead, and the officer noted that he did not see the vehicle turn onto Salt Springs Road. As the officer was writing his report, he learned the vehicle was found inside 1273 Salt Springs Road, the report stated.

FATAL FALL FROM VEHICLE

Another unusual crash-related fatality in 2024 in Campbell apparently was never classified as a traffic fatality.

A Campbell police report states that an officer went to the intersection of Coitsville Road and Courtland Avenue at 1:21 a.m. July 13 and found two vehicles on Coitsville Road with people standing between them and a man in the road.

The officer asked what happened, and the people said the man fell out of a moving vehicle. Ambulance personnel were summoned. The officer spoke with two “concerned citizens that were driving behind” a black Chevrolet. Both said they saw the injured man exit the right side of the vehicle through a window and climb onto the roof of the vehicle while it was still moving and fell onto the road.

Occupants of the Chevrolet said the man who fell was intoxicated at the time he climbed out the window. His death certificate stated that he died of head trauma as a result of a fall.

The narrative with his death certificate stated that paramedics reported that the man “either fell from the car or jumped from it, while it was traveling at a high rate of speed.” He died at the hospital July 18.

MULTIPLE FATAL

A Nov. 15 crash killed a man, 66, and a woman, 77, at Market Street and Middletown Road in Beaver Township. The crash was at 11:11 p.m.

An Ohio State Highway Patrol crash report states that the vehicle was traveling north on Market Street in the right lane, drove off the right side of the road, struck a pole and caught on fire. Autopsies were performed, and both deaths were ruled accidental.

OVI-RELATED

Like the number of Mahoning County fatal crashes in 2024, the number of OVI-related fatal crashes has varied from year to year since 2022. The data comes from the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s online OSTATS crash dashboard.

In 2024, there were 11 fatal OVI-related crashes, four of them in Youngstown; in 2023, there were five OVI-related fatal crashes, three of them in Youngstown; and in 2022, there were 18 fatal OVI-related crashes, seven of them in Youngstown.

More of the fatal crashes in 2024 took place in the second half of the year than the first half. Of the 17 fatal Mahoning County fatal crashes, seven were during the first half of the year and the other 10 were during the second half.

In addition to Youngstown having eight of the fatal crashes in 2024, the townships with at least one fatal crash were Austintown, Smith, Springfield, Boardman, Poland, Beaver, Goshen and Milton.