A 19-year-old Shiloh passenger was killed and a 19-year-old Mansfield driver was seriously injured early Thursday, November 12, when the car they were riding in left Robinson Road in Weller Township and struck a tree, the Mansfield Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol said in a news release reported by the Mansfield News Journal and the Shelby News Reporter.
Troopers responded at 12:13 a.m. to the one-vehicle crash on Robinson Road near Pittenger Road in northeastern Richland County, according to the patrol. The preliminary investigation found that a 2015 Chevrolet Malibu was traveling northwest on Robinson Road when it traveled off the left side of the road and struck a tree, the patrol said.
The passenger, Conner Yenni, 19, of Shiloh, was pronounced dead at the scene, the patrol said. The driver, Emma Amert, 19, of Mansfield, was transported to OhioHealth Mansfield Hospital with serious injuries, according to the patrol’s release.
The Franklin Township Fire Department, the Richland County Sheriff’s Office and Aber’s Towing assisted troopers at the scene, the patrol said. Robinson Road near Pittenger Road is a rural, two-lane stretch of Weller Township, northeast of Mansfield, where the crash remains under investigation by the patrol’s Mansfield Post.
What we know — and what we’re still waiting on. Confirmed by the Highway Patrol: the time and location of the crash, the vehicle involved, the direction of travel, and the outcome for both occupants. Not yet released: why the Malibu left the roadway, whether speed, impairment or seat-belt use played any role, and any additional findings from the investigation. The patrol has announced none of those details, and NewsForce247 will not speculate on them; this story will be updated on the patrol’s findings if and when they are released.
The crash is the third fatal wreck Ohio troopers have investigated in the region this week. On Wednesday morning, a Michigan man was killed in a three-vehicle crash on U.S. 20 in Fulton County — read NewsForce247’s coverage, Man, 28, Killed in Three-Vehicle Crash on U.S. 20 in Fulton County — and on Wednesday afternoon a West Jefferson man died in a three-vehicle crash on U.S. 36 in Delaware County, covered in West Jefferson Man Killed in Three-Vehicle Crash on U.S. 36 in Delaware County. Each investigation is separate, and troopers have linked none of them to the others.
Both young people in Thursday’s crash were 19, one from the village of Shiloh and one from Mansfield, the two communities closest to the Weller Township scene. Word of a fatal crash involving local teenagers travels fast in Richland County’s small towns, and the patrol’s release, carried Thursday by the Mansfield News Journal and the Shelby News Reporter, is the first official account families and classmates have received.
Investigators have not said how long the roadway was affected overnight, and the patrol’s preliminary account does not describe any other vehicles being involved. The Malibu was the only vehicle in the crash, according to the patrol, and no other injuries were reported in its release.
Crashes like this one follow a familiar investigative path in Ohio. The patrol’s post handling the case documents the scene, the vehicle’s final position and the roadway evidence, and its preliminary release — the document the Mansfield News Journal and the Shelby News Reporter both reported Thursday — is explicitly a first account, issued while the investigation is still open. Findings about contributing factors, when troopers reach them, come in later releases, which is why this article separates what the patrol has confirmed from what it has not yet addressed.
Weller Township sits in Richland County’s rural northeast, a patchwork of farms and small communities between Mansfield, Plymouth and Shiloh. Robinson Road carries local traffic through that countryside, the kind of two-lane route where residents know every curve — and where an after-midnight crash can go unwitnessed except by the people in the car. The patrol has not said whether anyone witnessed Thursday’s crash or who first reported it.
What happens next is the patrol’s investigation. The Mansfield Post continues to investigate the crash, and any determination about why the car left Robinson Road will come from that investigation. Funeral or memorial arrangements for Yenni had not been announced in the patrol’s release or in the reports published Thursday.
Anyone who witnessed the crash or traveled Robinson Road near Pittenger Road around 12:13 a.m. Thursday and has not yet spoken with investigators can contact the Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Mansfield Post. NewsForce247 will append a labeled update to this article if the patrol releases further findings.