Authorities Identify Victims in Fatal I-70 Crash in Ohio County
Derek Redd Trending
TRIADELPHIA -- The Ohio County Sheriff's Office has released the names of the three people killed in a three-vehicle crash Thursday night on Interstate 70 near The Highlands. That crash, officials said, served as another example of the dangers driving the stretch of I-70 known as Two-Mile Hill and the need to be cautious and cognizant of the hazards in that area.
According to the OSCO, driver Bobby Tidrick, 23, and passengers Earl Safreed Jr., 32, and Stella Safreed, 27, all were killed when their vehicle crossed the median while driving east on Interstate 70 near the Highlands, striking another vehicle and colliding with a tractor trailer.
The drivers of the other two vehicles were taken to WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital for possible injuries. The crash remains under investigation.
The crash closed that section of I-70 for several hours Thursday night as law enforcement, firefighters and emergency personnel tended to the crash site.
That area of the interstate is among the most dangerous in the region, said Ohio County Sheriff Tom Howard and Ohio County Emergency Management Coordinator Lou Vargo. There are two main culprits -- speed and gravity. Both Howard and Vargo said motorists often go too fast down that hill, and the 5% grade makes it easier for vehicles to pick up too much speed.
Add the sharp turn at the bottom of the hill, and there's plenty of chances for crashes to happen. That combination was a reason for a tractor trailer crash at the bottom of Two-Mile Hill at the end of August.
Howard said his deputies run speed checks along that stretch as much as possible. He's down five deputies, he said, which limits the amount of people he can dedicate to that task. But those deputies routinely catch drivers going well past the 65-mile-per-hour speed limit.
"We get them at 90," he said. "We get them going higher than 90."
Howard said even Thursday night as authorities investigated the crash, at least one driver flouted the speed limit.
"We had a guy in a smaller car on the other side, he must have been flying up there at 80 miles an hour," Howard said. "I think he kicked it in on purpose because we were all tied up on the other side."
The best way to cut down on crashes in that area, both Howard and Vargo said, is for motorists to slow down to at least the speed limit. Vargo said that keeping watch of the drivers around you can also help.
"Because you're in those situations, just be hypervigilant of all the traffic around you," he said. "Drive defensively, because you never know what the other person's going to do."
Howard reiterated his desire to install cables in the median of I-70 along Two-Mile Hill. That, he said, would keep vehicles from crossing the median and into oncoming traffic. While a driver who crashes into those cables could still end up injured, Howard figures they would fare much better than if they skidded across the median and into the path of a tractor trailer.
"We're trying to save lives," he said.