FATAL CRASH ON 303

Officials believe that the driver of a nursery truck went off the road on Route 303, east of Cowley, in Grafton Township then may have over corrected while trying to get back on the road causing it to roll over and crash into a utility pole.

Grafton Township Fire Chief Bob Richards said his department was called to the scene for a roll over crash with possible entrapment. “When our first Firefighter got on scene he immediately called for Metro LifeFlight to be put in the air. We also had Valley City dispatched because we weren’t sure at first the extent of the guy’s injuries and Valley City is staffed during the day with Medics so we wanted to make sure we had all of our bases covered. We found one person sitting outside of the vehicle on the side of the road while the other was underneath the truck.”

Chief Richards said the man was not pinned under the truck but they did have to clear out a tree in order to gain complete access to the victim. A man driving by when the crash occurred, thinking the man was pinned under the truck, used the crane on the back of his truck to lift it up. “He assumed the man was pinned under the vehicle so he did what he could to take some weight off truck so either he could get out on his own or we could help him.” Firefighters left the crane in place once they arrived because it had semi stabilized the truck and they didn’t want it shifting during the rescue attempt. Chief Richards said although extensive attempts were made to save the man’s life the LifeFlight Doctor pronounced him dead at the scene.

The other victim that was found sitting outside of the vehicle was transported to Medina General Hospital.

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating the crash.

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