CAR GOES OFF ROAD – SLAMS POLE

ONE DEAD – ONE FLOWN TO CLEVELAND

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South Amherst – A single car crash in South Amherst early Tuesday morning has left one man dead and another in serious condition.

Lieutenant Glenn Peterson of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said the two men were traveling westbound on Russia Road just before the crash. “The car went through the stop sign at Russia and Baumhart, it’s a three way intersection, and continued straight across Baumhart and into the yard taking out trees and other items before striking the utility pole.”

Jim Criss lives in the house next to where the crash occurred, he said the noise of the crash woke him up. “It sounded like thunder, that was my first thought. They have been saying we should be getting storms so I figured that it was just thunder so I laid back down and was going to go back to sleep. Then after a couple minutes I didn’t hear anything else so I thought I should go check it out.” Criss went to his side door and looked out over his driveway, the two porch lights on the side of his house were not bright enough to shine on the mangled car, but he could clearly see the tail lights blinking.

“When I saw the red lights blinking then I could see a little better what had happned so I called 9-1-1 right away cause I figured since nobody had come to the door they must still be inside the car and hurt pretty bad.”

Criss said that a Trooper arrived quickly and that is when he first stepped outside of his door. “I wanted to wait until someone else showed up, partly because I didn’t know what I would do but also I didn’t really want to see what was in there. I stepped out onto the driveway and the one fella who was thrown from the car was still conscious, you could hear him moaning and saying help me and the Trooper kept telling him to lay still and that help was on the way.”

The victim that was ejected from the car was found lying about 30 feet from the car in the snow. Paramedics from LifeCare Ambulance pronounced him dead at the scene.

The second victim had to be cut out of the car by Firefighters from the South Amherst Fire Department. Once he was out Paramedics treated and transported him to Community Health Partners where he was later flown to Cleveland.

Criss said that he has lived in that home for almost 28 years and although he has seen his share of crashes, most have been cars pulling off of Russia and into traffic on Baumhart. Seeing a car come off the road and ending up in his side yard baffles him. “It’s gotta be bad when you are coming straight on Russia and you have two big stop signs and this big arrow sign right on the other side of the road – and you still fly into my yard and end up with these results. It’s very sad.”

Troopers are investigating the crash but believe that alcohol did play a part in the crash.

UPDATE: The names of the victims have been released by the State Patrol. Jerry Agee, 29 of Elyria, was the passenger who was ejected from the vehicle and was pronounced dead at the scene by Paramedics.

Jerry Hartman, 28 of Lorain, was the driver of the 1995 Skylark. Hartman was trapped inside of the car and had to be cut out by Firefighters. Hartman was treated and released from MetroHealth Medical Center.

Although Troopers “believe” that alcohol was a factor in the crash that has not yet been confirmed.

To see more photos from the scene: CLICK HERE