COLUMBUS, Ohio – Two men were killed and four people were injured in separate traffic crashes in central Ohio over the weekend.
Columbus police say Michael Bates, 27, died in a head-on collision shortly before 5:00 a.m. Sunday on Gender Road, south of Wright Road, on the Southeast Side.
Bates was driving southbound when a northbound vehicle driven by Patricia Haynes crossed the center line and struck Bates’ Ford Taurus, police said in a statement issued Sunday. Police say Bates died at the scene.
Police say Haynes, 37, and Shirley Walton, 40, a passenger in Bates’ car were taken to hospitals. Their conditions weren’t released. Demetrius Baxter, 20, a passenger in the back seat of Bates’ car, was treated at Mt. Carmel West Hospital for injuries, police said.
Investigators said they didn’t know what caused Haynes’ car to veer over the center line into the southbound lane. They are continuing to investigate.
Bates’ death was the 20th traffic fatality in Columbus this year.
An elderly man has died after the motor home he was driving ran off the road and crashed into a pole in Licking County
Richard Rodriguez was taken to a hospital where he died after the crash that occurred around 9:30 Sunday morning on the State Route 158 overpass over I-70, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
A dispatcher with the patrol’s Granville post says a woman passenger was injured and taken to a hospital. Her condition wasn’t immediately known.
Troopers say Rodriguez, 81, was driving the motor home when he traveled off the left side of the road and struck a guardrail. The motor home then struck a traffic signal support pole at the entrance ramp to the eastbound lanes of I-70.
The patrol investigation is continuing.