Even with the antiseptic style of accident report writing, the detailed 33-page report and narrative released Monday by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, along with drawings depicting each vehicle’s motion during the collisions, tells a compelling story of tragedy and heroics in the chaotic moments following the collision of a semi-truck with a number of vehicles in Warren Township.
The event begins at 3:45 p.m. on the afternoon of March 31 at the intersection of State Route 5 and Burnett Street. Investigators were able to determine the moment of impact by the broken watch on one of the victims. Three vehicles sit in the straight-ahead lane on State Route 5 waiting for the red light. To their left sits one vehicle in the left turn lane.
The first vehicle is a Chevy Avalanche being driven by James Migliozzi, of Ravenna. He is in the vehicle by himself. Behind Migliozzi is Rudolph Palya, of Windham, in a Dodge Nitro.
Next in line is the ill-fated Pontiac G6 registered to the U.S. General Services Administration and driven by Marine Sgt. Charles W. Keene. Sitting next to Keene is Carl McDermott, of Masury. In the back seat is Michael Theodore Jr., of Warren, Zachery Nolan, of Mineral Ridge, and Josh Sherbourne, of Southington. Keene, a Marine recruiter, was taking the four men to Cleveland to sign final papers for enlistment in the Marine Corps.
To the left of the three vehicles, in the left turn lane, is another Dodge Nitro driven by Judy Trimble, of Newton Falls.
In the opposite lane, waiting for the light heading east, is Robert Bacue, of Warren, in a GMC Envoy with two passengers. Behind Bacue is Donald Beach, of Youngstown, on a Honda Shadow motorcycle.
Approaching the first three stopped vehicles in a semi-truck registered to Nick Strimbu Inc., is Donald P. Williams Jr., of Youngstown.
The light turned green, and the vehicles started to move. Bacue, in the east lane, began moving forward into the intersection. In the west lane, the first two vehicles began to move, but the report says the Pontiac driven by Keene did not yet start forward.
At this moment, Williams’s semi slammed into the rear of the Pontiac. It shoved the Marine and his recruits into the oncoming lane, where it was struck nearly head-on by Bacue in his Envoy. Williams and his semi continued straight forward and rear-ended Palya in his Nitro, who in turn rear-ended Migliozzi in the Avalanche.
The semi was not yet finished. The truck then angled across the intersection, hitting Trimble in the turn lane, narrowly missing the secondary collision between Keene and Bacue, and struck Beach on the motorcycle.
All individual witness statements were not released by the patrol pending possible court action in this case. Also revealed in the report, but not released to the public, was the existence of dash-cam video that shows the accident as it occurred. The camera was installed in the Strimbu semi.
As the first trooper responded to the scene, he describes Williams as “very disoriented at the crash scene.” He refused to give troopers an estimated speed at collision, but the dash-cam video clearly shows the Marine vehicle stopped with brake lights on, according to the report. Williams also refused at the hospital to answer trooper’s questions other than a few that were written down on a form.
Rescue personnel who arrived before the trooper say that Keene, despite his injuries, got out of the G6 on his own and was attempting to get Nolan out of the vehicle, but passed out and was unconscious. Other passersby removed Nolan from the G6 and started CPR, as well as worked to revive Keene.
Troopers report that they did not detect the odor of alcohol at the scene, but they did get blood samples from all drivers for toxicology tests, not yet revealed. None of the other drivers showed any sign of impairment.
Sherbourne, Nolan and Theodore all died of their injuries. McDermott and Keene were injured but have subsequently been released from the hospital. A total of 15 people were involved in the accident.
Meanwhile, Theodore's parents said they would like to hear a sincere apology from Williams.
"That would have been nice, not just for us, but for the other families, a real deep felt apology," said his dad, Michael Theodore. "What happened to that."
Meanwhile, we went to Williams's residence Monday to discuss the crash with him, but no one was home. A piece of duct tape covered his address on the mailbox in front of his house.
Prosecutors are still reviewing dash camera video from inside the semi and are waiting for results of a blood test taken from Williams to determine if he was under the influence of alcohol or drugs at the time. The case is expected to go to the grand jury soon.
