COLUMBUS, Ohio – Three people died in traffic accidents in Columbus Friday evening, including a man whose car fell from a freeway overpass onto a busy street at rush-hour and a pedestrian struck by a hit-and-run driver, according to Columbus police.
Investigators say Taza Anthony was driving northbound on I-270 on the East Side just after 5:30 p.m. when his car veered off the right side of the roadway, struck the guardrail at the overpass at Morse Road and drove off the embankment, landing on Morse Road where his vehicle hit two others before landing on its top.
Anthony, 44, was pronounced dead at the scene.
A 55-year-old woman is facing a felony charge of hit-and-run as well as tampering with evidence after allegedly hitting a man who was walking alongside I-70 on the West Side Friday night, police said.
The 63-year-old man, whose name has not been released, was walking in the right eastbound lane of I-70, east of Hague Avenue, just after 9:30 p.m. when he was struck by Julia Essig’s 2013 Honda Civic, investigators said.
After the crash, Essig fled the scene, leaving the man lying in the roadway where police say he was hit by at least four other vehicles as his body lay in the roadway. Police say those drivers stopped and remained at the scene while Essig and her car were found in Grandview Heights.
Two men were killed in a single-car accident north of downtown.
Police say Eric A. Slone, of Columbus, lost control of his Chrysler Sebring on the ramp from I-670 to southbound I-71 and the car slid sideways into the left guardrail just after 7:00 p.m.
Slone and his passenger, Jaroslav Boukhtin, both 27, were pronounced dead about a half hour later.
Investigators said speed appeared to be a factor in the crash, but did not know if alcohol contributed.