MAN CRITICAL AFTER I-90 CRASH

Sheffield Village – A single car crash sent two men to the hospital Sunday afternoon, one in critical condition the other listed as serious at the time of the crash.

Chief Larry Bliss of the Sheffield Village Police Department said that the two men were traveling east on I-90 at the time of the crash. “The driver lost control of his car and went off the left side of the road about 350 feet west of here (crash scene), came back on the road and then went off the right side where his car rolled over and landed on its side in the culvert.”

Mike Hiltabidel and his wife Rachel were traveling east on I-90 on their way to dinner in Cleveland Sunday when they saw a car pass them at a high rate of speed. “When he past us I would say he was doing 85 to 90 MPH. Then after he got ahead of us about 200 feet he just lost it and went off the road. We watched as the car rolled and then landed in the water.”

Hiltabidel said that he and his wife stopped and called 9-1- after witnessing the crash. The couple then joined a group of other people who ran to the car to help.

The driver of the Honda Accord, a 21-year-old man from Lorain, was able to get out of the car on his own. Hiltabidel said that when people got to the car the man was already trying to free his passenger. “The passenger was stuck in there pretty good and was pinned right at the water level so as we tried to hold the car up my wife held his head up out of the water.”

Rachel Hiltabidel said that the man was “grunting and trying to breathe” but said nothing during the rescue.

Captain Greg Davis of the Sheffield Village Fire Department said that when Firefighters arrived they found the car resting on the passenger side and a throng of people working together to hold the car upright. “We quickly began the extrication process, we knew we had to get him out of there as soon as possible. He was pinned on the bottom side of the car and water was rushing in on him. One of our Firefighters, Chad McCallie, somehow found away to crawl inside of the car to get closer to the victim. Once inside he was able to maintain his airway until we were able to get the car opened up and get him out.”

As the victim was being taken to the ambulance a Metro LifeFlight helicopter was landing on I-90 just east of the crash scene. Medics and a Medical Crew from Metro worked on the man in the back of the ambulance for about 30 minutes before loading him onto the helicopter and flying him off to Cleveland.

Davis said that when he first arrived he asked Police and bystanders if anyone else was in the car and everybody said no. “It turned out that the driver was mixed in with that crowd of people and then just went up to the top of the hill and didn’t say anything for awhile. Then an Officer told us that they had him in the back of one of their cars. We checked him out and were concerned because he was not answering question appropriately. That combined with the mechanism of injury we had Medics from the Avon Fire Department treat him and transport him to Avon Emergency Care Center.”

Chief Bliss said that speed is a factor in the crash but beyond that everything else is still under investigation.

Traffic going east on I-90 was stopped for about an hour while the helicopter was on the ground. Many of the people stuck in traffic pleaded with Officers to let them through as they displayed their Cleveland Browns tickets.

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UPDATE:The names of the victims have been released by authorities as 21 year old Ryan Katitus of Lorain and his passenger 24 year old Derrick Doan of Amherst.

Katitus was treated and released from MetroHealth Medical Center while Doan remains in critical condition.

Our own Brian Woods was on scene quickly and has photos from down in the culvert. To view his photos: BRIAN WOODS PHOTO GALLERY

TMC PHOTO GALLERY