July 22, 2004

Police continue investigation of major downtown accident

Yellow Springs police and the State Highway Patrol are continuing their investigation into the major accident that shut down Xenia Avenue for more than four hours last Tuesday and sent three people to the hospital, Police Chief Carl Bush said.

Bush said that next week the Police Department should present to the Greene County prosecutor’s office a case against Cassie Wallace, the driver who caused the accident. The prosecutor’s office will determine the charges.

The chief said that the Police Department is awaiting toxicology results on Wallace, as well as results of technical analysis of the crash that could determine how fast the driver was traveling when her SUV hit several other cars downtown. He said that because of federal privacy rules Greene Memorial Hospital, where Wallace was taken after the accident, would not share its blood analysis with the Police Department.

Bush said that he did not have an estimate on how fast Wallace was driving, but people who witnessed the crash have said that she was traveling extremely fast. Several witnesses said that the vehicle went airborne during the incident. Bush also said that police are still interviewing witnesses.

In addition, the department is having a mechanic check Wallace’s vehicle, a GMC Jimmy, to determine the “road-worthiness of the vehicle” and whether the condition of the SUV contributed to the accident, Bush said.

On July 13, Wallace caused a major accident on downtown Xenia Avenue when she drove through a red light at Xenia and Corry Street before hitting at least four vehicles. Law enforcement officials from Yellow Springs, the State Highway Patrol and the Greene County sheriff’s department and fire departments from Miami Township, Enon, Fairborn and Xenia Township responded to the incident.

The accident sent two other people to the hospital, Yellow Springs resident Bambi Williams and Casey Kelliher, 48, of Beavercreek. Kelliher, who was driving a Saturn, suffered bumps and bruises, Bush said. Williams broke a toe and a rib and had a gash above and below one eyebrow. She was released from Greene Memorial late in the afternoon last Tuesday.

Little is known about Wallace. Bush said that she is 19, had been attending college and was from Russell’s Point, near Bellefontaine in Logan County. It is unclear where she was traveling last Tuesday, Bush said. As of Friday, Wallace remained in intensive care at Greene Memorial.

Bush said that several people have contacted police reporting that they saw Wallace driving toward Yellow Springs on U.S. 68 before the accident. The chief said that one person has told him that she observed Wallace driving “very erratically and fast” on 68, but she could not contact the Highway Patrol because she was having cellphone problems.

—Robert Mihalek