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Witnesses say a wrong-way driver led to a deadly crash on Route 8 overnight in Cuyahoga Falls

Posted at 8:51 AM, Nov 28, 2019
and last updated 2019-11-29 10:15:41-05

CUYAHOGA FALLS, Ohio — One person was killed and another person injured in what appears to be a wrong-way crash Wednesday night on State Route 8 SB, according to Cuyahoga Falls police.

Police said in a media release that one person was killed in the crash that involved at least two cars and a semi. A second person had to be cut from their car and rushed to a local hospital with what police described as serious injuries.

Authorities identified the deceased man as 22-year-old Tyler M. Williams, of Akron.

The crash happened just before 11:30 p.m. in the southbound lanes of Route 8 under the Bailey Road overpass.

Jason Petrekovich told News 5 that he was with a group of friends and his wife heading south on Route 8 when a car passed them going north in the southbound lanes. Jason's friend was driving at the time and was able to swerve out of the way.

"It was just so fast, it's not like you see lights coming at you from at a distance, it was just like, bam up on you," Petrekovich said.

Petrekovich and his wife went to the scene after learning of the crash.

"They got families, it's the night before Thanksgiving, it's irritating," Petrekovich said.

The Summit County Metro Crash Team was called to the scene to investigate and do a full reconstruction of the events of the crash.

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At the scene, there was a large amount of diesel fuel spilled from the semi that was jackknifed across all 3 lanes and a debris field that covered about a football field in length. One car was on its roof, and the car Petrekovich said was going the wrong way seemed to be flattened and torn in half.

Another witness, Tyler Krusinski captured the crash on a car rear view camera.

WARNING: The video below contains graphic content.

Route 8 south was closed at Graham Road for hours while crews worked the scene.

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