Driver runs from crashes, is struck, killed on I-270
Northbound lanes on West Side shut down for 5 hours
Thursday, January 17, 2008 12:53 AM
By Matthew Marx and Andy Hirsch

THE COLUMBUS DISPATCH

(At this time his identity has not been revealed)

JAMES D. DECAMP | DISPATCH

Columbus, Ohio - police investigate the death of man who ran onto the northbound lanes of I-270 at Georgesville Road on the West Side. The man had just caused two hit-and-run crashes, witnesses told police.A man was killed while running across the Outerbelt after he fled from two accidents he caused along Georgesville Road last night.

Three cars struck the man as he tried to cross the northbound lanes of I-270 at 6:17 p.m., Columbus police said. Moments earlier, he had caused two hit-and-run crashes along Georgesville Road on the West Side, witnesses told police.

The man, whose identity was being withheld late last night pending notification of his family, died at the scene. No one else suffered a serious injury.

All northbound lanes of I-270 just north of Georgesville were closed for nearly five hours as crash investigators interviewed motorists and pieced together what happened.

The man was driving a Dodge sedan when he struck a car in the parking lot of the Meijer store, 775 Georgesville Rd., accident investigator David Cornute told WBNS-TV (Channel 10).

The man took off in the Dodge, and the first car that he struck tried to follow but lost him after he started going the wrong way on Georgesville Road. The Dodge then collided head-on with another car at I-270.

After the second collision, the driver abandoned the Dodge and ran down the embankment, where he tried to run across the highway. That's when three northbound cars hit him, investigators said.

One of those drivers left, not realizing at first that a person had been struck, but that driver later came forward.

Why the man fled in the first place was unclear to officers last night, although investigators suggested that he had been in trouble with the law previously.

mmarx@dispatch.com

andy.hirsch@10tv.com

http://www.dispatch.com/live/content/lo ... N_HIT.html