Three people were killed and a fourth was injured late on Sunday night when a Tesla travelling the wrong way on Interstate 90 struck two vehicles near Nagel Road in Avon, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. The crash happened at about 11:50 p.m. on November 8 in the westbound lanes of I-90 in Lorain County, west of Cleveland.
Source: Lorain Daily — Ohio State Highway Patrol release
The people who died
Troopers identified the driver of the Tesla as Andrew Sheridan, 50, of Avon Lake. Josylynn R. Geren, 24, of Elyria, was driving the Chevrolet Cruze that the Tesla struck, and her passenger was Samantha Spicer, 24, of Vermilion. All three were pronounced dead at the scene, the patrol said.
Source: Lorain Daily — Ohio State Highway Patrol release
Richard A. Siaz, 26, of Lorain, was driving the second vehicle struck, a Chevrolet Traverse. He was taken to an area hospital with injuries the patrol described as non-life-threatening. Both the Cruze and the Traverse were travelling west when the eastbound Tesla hit them, troopers said.
Source: Lorain Daily — Ohio State Highway Patrol release
A traffic stop, then a flight onto the interstate
The patrol said Avon police had started a traffic stop on the Tesla after officers found the car, which had been reported leaving the scene of a domestic incident earlier that night. “The Tesla fled from the stop and entered Interstate 90 from Nagel Road, travelling eastbound in the westbound lanes,” the patrol said in its release.
Source: Lorain Daily — Ohio State Highway Patrol release
A timeline built from Lorain County dispatch audio adds that Avon Lake officers had begun tracking the grey Tesla at about 10:45 p.m. as it left their city and had alerted Avon officers, who located the car before the stop. The same timeline records an officer asking for Ohio Department of Transportation traffic-camera footage from the area to be preserved as evidence. Dispatch timelines are working records and can change as the official investigation proceeds.
Source: US CrimeRadar — Lorain County dispatch timeline, Avon I-90 crash
Two investigations are now running
Troopers from the patrol’s Elyria Post are investigating the crash itself. The Avon Police Department is separately investigating the earlier domestic incident, the traffic stop and what happened before the crash, the patrol said. The patrol’s release, as reported on Monday morning, did not state a cause for the crash and did not say whether alcohol, drugs or speed were factors; those questions remain with investigators.
Source: Lorain Daily — Ohio State Highway Patrol release
The westbound lanes near the crash were closed for about four hours while troopers investigated and crews cleared the scene, and they have since reopened, the patrol said. I-90 is the main east–west interstate across northern Ohio, carrying commuters between Lorain County and Cleveland and heavy through freight traffic, including trucks, between Toledo, Cleveland and Buffalo — so an overnight closure on this stretch affects both local drivers and long-haul truckers crossing the state.
Why wrong-way crashes are so deadly
Wrong-way crashes on divided highways are among the most lethal collisions on American roads because the two vehicles close on each other at the combined speed of both, leaving the drivers travelling in the correct direction almost no time to react. They most often happen at night, when a driver enters a freeway from an exit or interchange ramp in the wrong direction — exactly the pattern troopers described at Nagel Road. Investigators in cases like this one normally work through the vehicle’s path, camera footage, toxicology and the events before the driver got on the highway before announcing findings.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Elyria Post investigation continues, and the Avon Police Department’s review of the domestic incident and the traffic stop is running alongside it. Watch for the patrol’s findings on how the Tesla came to enter the westbound lanes, any statement on whether impairment played a role, and Avon police findings on the domestic call that started the chain of events. Richard A. Siaz, the injured Traverse driver, was reported to have non-life-threatening injuries.
Awaaz Punjab is not naming anyone in connection with the earlier domestic incident beyond what the patrol itself released, and no details of that incident have been made public by police so far. This report will be updated when the patrol or Avon police release further findings.