Cleveland, OH
Wrong-way crash on Ohio Turnpike kills Lake County woman
AMHERST TOWNSHIP, Ohio — A Lake County woman was killed Thursday night when she drove her vehicle in the wrong direction on the Ohio Turnpike, crashing head-on into an oncoming tractor-trailer.
The State Highway Patrol says Rita Robinson Whitman, 78, of Willoughby, was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash near milepost 142 in Lorain County. The driver of the tractor-trailer, a 33-year-old woman from McComb, Ohio, had minor injuries. She was taken by ambulance to UH Elyria Medical Center.
The crash occurred just before 9 p.m. Whitman reportedly was driving a 2015 Toyota RAV4 west in the eastbound lanes of the turnpike. She crashed into a 2021 International tractor-trailers in the middle lanes of the highway.
The patrol says it’s unknown why Whitman was driving the wrong way on the turnpike, but the crash remains under investigation.