Sunday, July 12, 1998
FLORENCE -- Local police are questioning an Erlanger man who reportedly told them he was the driver of a pickup that dropped a pallet of roofing shingles on Interstate 75 Thursday.
The debris in the road caused a tanker truck to flip onto its side, crushing a minivan. The wreck closed southbound lanes for more than eight hours.
Dennis C. McDine, 43, told police he dropped the shingles and then left the scene, police said Saturday.
That accident involved four other vehicles. The roof of the minivan carrying Vernon Bowling, 56, and Beulah Bowling, 53, of Williamstown had to be removed to get the occupants out.
The Bowlings were taken to University Hospital in Cincinnati, and Mrs. Bowling was released Thursday. Mr. Bowling was in good condition on Saturday.
Long traffic delays from that accident were compounded by a second crash Thursday on I-275 in Erlanger around 5 p.m. Erlanger police said the accident involved three tractor-trailers on westbound I-275. Early Friday morning, a third accident near the scene of the first killed a Pontiac, Mich., man.
Derek Johnson, 26, had been driving a 1990 Mazda in the right lane of southbound I-75 around 3:05 a.m. when he swerved for an unknown reason, Erlanger police said.
He then collided with a tractor-trailer parked in the emergency lane, police said.
Mr. Johnson was thrown from his car and pronounced dead on the scene. The occupant of the tractor-trailer was uninjured.
The tractor-trailer had stopped for the earlier accident that closed the highway.
