Columbus , OH : 80-Years old women killed and another driver critically injured in wrong-way crash along I 670 on Tusday night ,February 10th 2015

Police were zeroing in on an elderly motorist in the minutes before she was involved in a wrong-way crash on I-670 on Tuesday night that killed her and critically injured another driver.

Virginia White, 80, had dementia and had been deemed a “high-risk missing person” by Gahanna police earlier in the evening, but officers could not locate her before the crash.

“Gahanna had been looking for her since I believe about 5 o’clock,” said Sgt. Brooke Wilson, supervisor of the Columbus police accident-investigation unit.

White died at 1:42 a.m. yesterday at OhioHealth Grant Medical Center, where she was taken following the crash just before 8:30 p.m. Tuesday on I-670 at I-71.

Police said White was driving east, toward Gahanna, in the westbound lanes when she collided with a Ford Taurus driven west by Hannah Miller, 21, of Columbus. The impact sent Miller’s car spinning into a westbound Kia minivan driven by Christopher Harden.

Miller was taken to Grant, where she remained in critical but stable condition last night. Angela Miller, her mother, from Upper Sandusky, said her daughter is unconscious and suffered a broken left thigh bone and ankle, a dislocated right ankle and rib fractures. She is expected to recover.

Angela Miller said her daughter, who lives in Blendon Township, was heading west on I-670 to meet with her boyfriend when the crash occurred. She said the seat belt and air bag saved her life.

Harden, 48, and his two passengers, Anna Harden, 12, and Sidney Tackett, 13, were not injured.

Wilson said detectives have not determined where White got on the freeway or how long she had been driving in the wrong direction. Records show that Gahanna police contacted Columbus at 8:22 p.m., saying they were following White’s cellphone, which was pinging in the Downtown area.

In the next three minutes, a handful of motorists called 911 to report either a wrong-way driver or the crash itself.

Niel Jurist, a spokeswoman for the city of Gahanna, said White’s husband called police about 5 p.m., saying his wife had rapid-onset dementia and shouldn’t be driving.


source :
Driver, 80, killed going wrong way on I-670 had dementia