The Chevy then sped away from the scene and ran a red light at Ohio 747 and Port Union Road, crashing into the left side of a Toyota Prius attempting to make a left turn onto Ohio 747. One of the vehicles sideswiped a gray Ford Focus driven by Amanda Chew, 28, of Cincinnati, who was not injured.
The driver of the Toyota, 62-year-old Troy H. Stapelton of Ann Court in Fairfield, died at the scene.
West Chester Fire Department crews extricated Strader from the Chevy and took him to West Chester Hospital to be treated for injuries, according to Barb Wilson, spokeswoman for the township. His condition was not available Thursday afternoon.
Christy Martin, 53, of Hamilton, the driver of the Honda struck at Ohio 747 and Mackenzie Court, was treated at the scene but refused transport, Wilson said.
Neither Stapleton nor Strader were wearing a safety belt, police said. The crash remains under investigation and charges are pending.
Stapelton was driving a vehicle owned by his employer, Fairfield-based Universal Transportation Systems, which issued a statement Thursday afternoon: “We are cooperating with the agencies involved in the investigation of this tragic accident. Our hearts go out to those who have lost a loved one and to those that were injured. We are unable to comment further while the accident remains under investigation.”
Excessive speed is believed to be a factor in the crash, based on damage to the vehicles, said Lt. Barry Walker of West Chester Police Department.
“This was a very high-speed collision,” Walker said. “This is not typical of the crashes we’re seeing. Our crashes overall in West Chester have been down. Injury crashes have been down substantially (in the past year). We’ve been aggressively doing traffic enforcement. We’ve even had some federal funding for that.”
It is not yet known if drugs or alcohol were involved.
Police don’t know why Strader fled the first crash, Walker said.
“We have to look at a variety of factors,” he said. “Was there a medical condition going on? Is there some another factor going on? Sometimes they’ll flee because of driver’s license status or insurance status or a lot of different factors. Sometimes they just get scared.”
This is not the first time Strader has been involved in a major crash. In February 2012, he lost control of a vehicle at the off-ramp from northbound Interstate-71 to Fields Ertel Road, according to Journal-News media partner WCPO. The vehicle went off the left side of the ramp, where it struck a highway sign, a tree and a light post before coming to a full stop.
Strader was trapped in the 2007 Chevrolet for about 30 minutes until Loveland-Symmes Fire Department extricated him from the car, then taken via medical helicopter to University Hospital to be treated for non-life threatening injuries.
Police said that crash was not the result of drugs or alcohol, but that Strader may have suffered a medical emergency.
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