Trooper, Driver In Critical Condition After Wrong-Way Crash

(News/Talk 1480 WHBC) – A trooper and a driver are in critical condition after a wrong-way crash on Interstate 71 in north-central Ohio.

It happened at around 2:40 Thursday morning near Mount Gilead, about 25 miles southwest of Mansfield.

The highway patrol says trooper Jason Phillips was looking for a possibly impaired driver when he was struck head-on by a vehicle that was traveling south in the northbound lanes.

Both vehicles caught on fire after the crash.

A Good Samaritan stopped to help and was also injured.

Trooper Phillips was flown to OSU Medical Center where he was in critical condition.

The patrol says the driver of the wrong-way vehicle, Michael Marchak Jr, 36, of Mansfield, was in critical condition at a hospital in Mansfield.

The highway patrol says further investigation revealed that the vehicle being driven by Marchak is the same vehicle Trooper Phillips was dispatched to investigate.

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