3 killed in I-70 crash near The Highlands in W.Va.
Derek Redd/The Intelligencer
TRIADELPHIA, W.Va. – Three West Virginia residents were killed Thursday night in a three-vehicle crash on Interstate 70 near The Highlands shopping complex, shutting down both westbound lanes for hours.
According to the Ohio County Sheriff’s Office, driver Bobby Tidrick, 23, and passengers Earl Safreed Jr., 32, and Stella Safreed, 27, all of Wheeling, were killed when their vehicle crossed the median while driving east on I-70, striking another vehicle and colliding head-on with a tractor-trailer.
The tractor-trailer driver was taken to WVU Medicine Wheeling Hospital as a precaution, as were an adult and a child in the third vehicle. Howard said the three didn’t seem to be seriously injured.
The crash occurred around 8:40 p.m., and the interstate reopened shortly before midnight. Authorities diverted traffic off of I-70 West at the Dallas Pike exit as law enforcement, firefighters and emergency personnel tended to the crash site.
Thursday’s crash led Howard to reiterate his call to install a cable in the median of that section of Interstate 70. He said he had been calling for that measure since he first was elected sheriff.
“All I can think of is that, if that cable were there, that car wouldn’t have crossed the median,” Howard said.