COLUMBUS – Police suspect that alcohol and speed played roles in an accident on the Northeast Side Saturday afternoon that left a seven-year-old a seven-year-old girl dead and sent five other people to hospitals with injuries.
UPDATE: This article has been edited to include the name of the child.
FATAL CRASH TAKES THE LIFE OF 7YO GIRL: Beautiful little girl, Lillie Alexandra Reed. Prayers for her family. The driver was a 30yo male. Speed and alcohol appear to be factors. The crash remains under investigation. pic.twitter.com/sCY9DvJUaP
— Columbus Division of Police (@ColumbusPolice) April 8, 2019
The accident was one of two fatal accidents in Franklin County over the weekend, the second one claiming the life of a 19-year-old woman in Groveport.
A Division of Police neighborhood safety camera in the area of Cleveland Avenue and E. 12th Avenue showed an SUV traveling at a high rate of speed southbound on Cleveland Avenue as it approached E. 12th Avenue at 5:33 p.m., Sgt. Brooke Wilson of the Accident Investigation Unit said.
The SUV was in the left lane when came upon a slower vehicle and veered to the right, crossing through the right lane and off the right side of the roadway where it struck a utility pole, then a vehicle stopped on 12th Avenue, and flipped over, coming to rest on its top, Wilson said.
Responding officers found one child partially ejected and Columbus fire personnel transported that child and four others to Nationwide Children’s Hospital, where seven-year-old Lillie Reed was pronounced dead at 7:15 p.m., Wilson said. She is the 12th traffic fatality in Columbus this year.
Police say the other children in the SUV were treated for injuries that were not life threatening.
The driver of the flipped SUV was taken to Grant Medical Center, Wilson said.
A 19-year-old Canal Winchester woman was killed Sunday afternoon in a single-car crash in Groveport, Franklin County Sheriff Dallas Baldwin said.
Amanda Burroughs was driving northbound on Old Hamilton Road, north of Elmont Place, when her Mercedes-Benz SUV went off of the right side of the and struck a tree, Baldwin said.
Burroughs was taken to Mount Carmel East Hospital by Madison Township Medic 181 and was pronounced dead, Baldwin said.
Burroughs was not wearing a seat belt, Baldwin said.
The accident remains under investigation.