TOLEDO, Ohio — Three people were killed and three others were injured late on Saturday, October 31, when two vehicles collided head-on on Hill Avenue at Wenz Road in south Toledo, according to the Toledo Police Department. The crash happened just after 11 p.m. on Halloween night, WTOL 11 reported, citing the police crash report; 13abc put the time at shortly before 11:15 p.m.
Source: WTOL 11 — 3 dead, 3 injured in crash at Hill Avenue and Wenz Road in Toledo
Police said a Dodge Charger travelling east on Hill Avenue struck a westbound Chevrolet Blazer head-on at the Wenz Road junction. The Charger was carrying four people in all — its driver and three passengers — and the force of the collision left two of them dead before ambulances could help, 13abc (WTVG) reported, citing Toledo police.
Source: 13abc (WTVG) — 3 dead, 3 hospitalized in head-on crash in Toledo
Who died, and who is still in hospital
The Charger's driver, Tewan Terry, 19, died at the scene, police said, and so did a 17-year-old male passenger in the same car. Awaaz Punjab does not name victims under 18. The Blazer's driver, Nasir Johnson, 26, was taken to the University of Toledo Medical Center and later died there, according to police.
Four people in total were taken to area hospitals. Johnson later died, leaving three people still hospitalised on Sunday — among them two passengers from the Charger, aged 16 and 17, police said. Their conditions had not been released by Sunday afternoon, and police have not publicly described the injuries of the third hospitalised person.
WTOL 11 reported on Sunday morning that it was not naming everyone involved because the police report indicated some families had not yet been notified. Police-facing reporting from 13abc named the two adult drivers, Terry and Johnson. The teenagers are identified by age only, in line with the protection of minors.
What police have — and have not — said
The Toledo Police Department is investigating the crash. As of Sunday, police had not publicly said what caused the two vehicles to collide head-on, whether alcohol or drugs played any part, or whether any charges will be filed. The department's full crash reports are generally posted on its online accident-report site no sooner than five days after a crash, so a complete written account may not be public until later this week.
Hill Avenue is a busy east-west arterial across south Toledo, lined with homes, shops and side streets such as Wenz Road. Saturday night was Halloween, when neighbourhood streets across the city were busier than usual late into the evening with trick-or-treaters, parties and people driving home from them — the backdrop against which police will examine speed, lighting and right-of-way at the junction.
The second deadly Toledo-area crash in three days
The Hill Avenue deaths came barely two days after another fatal crash in the Toledo area. On Thursday evening, a two-vehicle crash near North Holland Sylvania Road and Nebraska Avenue killed Bria E. Boone, 32, of Toledo, and Laura J. Anaple, 64, of Toledo, after a Lucas County Sheriff's Office attempted stop turned into a pursuit on I-475 and Airport Highway, the Ohio State Highway Patrol said. A juvenile passenger in Boone's vehicle was taken to hospital with life-threatening injuries. That investigation is also continuing.
What happens next
Toledo police investigators will reconstruct the Hill Avenue collision from vehicle damage, debris, any surveillance or dash-camera video and witness accounts before deciding on findings or charges. Anyone who saw the crash, which happened just after 11 p.m. on Saturday at Hill Avenue and Wenz Road, is being encouraged to contact the Toledo Police Department. For Punjabi and other South Asian families in the Toledo area — and for truckers who use Toledo's east-west arterials on local runs — the practical message from police is the standing one after a Halloween weekend: slow down on residential arterials late at night, and expect investigators to keep parts of the inquiry closed until families have been told first.