A 69-year-old man died early Thursday, Oct. 29, after his SUV ran off U.S. 42 in Wayne Township and overturned, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a news release reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
The highway patrol was notified at 4:30 a.m. Oct. 29 about a serious-injury crash on U.S. 42, south of Middletown Road in Wayne Township, in Warren County, according to the release cited by The Cincinnati Enquirer. The crash was single-vehicle, the Enquirer reported.
Michael McClellan, 69, was driving south in a 2021 Ford EcoSport when he traveled off the left side of the roadway, struck a ditch and overturned, according to the highway patrol release reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer. The release, as reported by the Enquirer, did not state a cause for why the vehicle left the road.
McClellan was taken to Atrium Medical Center, where he was pronounced dead, the release said, as reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer. No other occupants or other vehicles were described in the release cited by the Enquirer.
The crash remains under investigation by the Ohio State Highway Patrol, according to The Cincinnati Enquirer. Investigations of this kind typically examine speed, road and weather conditions, vehicle condition and whether impairment or a medical event played a role, but the patrol’s release, as reported by the Enquirer, offered no findings on any of those points Thursday.
U.S. 42 is a two-lane highway through this part of Warren County, linking Waynesville with Lebanon and the communities in between, and the stretch south of Middletown Road is rural, with ditches close to the pavement. A vehicle leaving the left side of a two-lane road crosses the oncoming lane before reaching the ditch, which is part of what troopers will be reconstructing.
For Wayne Township residents, the early-morning crash is the kind of single-vehicle fatal wreck that troopers across southwest Ohio investigate most often in the overnight and pre-dawn hours, when traffic is light but visibility and alertness are at their lowest. The patrol has not announced any road closure lasting beyond the initial response in the account reported by The Cincinnati Enquirer.
Anyone who was traveling U.S. 42 near Middletown Road around 4:30 a.m. Thursday and saw the crash or the EcoSport beforehand can contact the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Lebanon post, which handles Warren County investigations. Further details, if the patrol releases them, will come through its investigation.
Photo: Dougtone, CC BY-SA