In less than 96 hours, a second single car crash has claimed the life of a female driver after she apparently drove off the road and hit a tree head-on, causing the vehicle to burst into flames.
Lt. Stan Jordan of the Wilmington Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol told The Times-Gazette the accident happened at about 5:40 a.m. Wednesday on SR 138, approximately one-quarter mile south of Mad River Road in New Market Township.
He said officers arrived on the scene and found the car, a 2004 Chevrolet Impala, over a slight embankment and in the ditch, engulfed in flames.
“She was traveling northbound on State Route 138 and it looks like she just drove off the road and hit a tree,” he said. “We don’t know for sure who the driver was yet.”
Jordan said officials were still in the process of making a positive identification so relatives could be notified.
“She just drifted off the road after making a small curve,” he said. “There’s no evidence of hard breaking or anything, she drifted off the road and went into a tree.”
Due to the early hour, he speculated the driver may have gone to sleep behind the wheel, or that the accident was a “looking down at my phone type of thing, but at this point, we can only guess.”
The investigation is continuing.
Reach Tim Colliver at 937-402-2571.