BORDERLAND

5-vehicle crash kills 1, injures 4 on turnpike

9/18/2013

FREMONT — A Middlefield, Ohio, man was killed and four others were hurt in a chain-reaction crash Tuesday involving two pickups and three tractor-trailers in an Ohio Turnpike work zone.

Erwin Kuhns, 51, was declared dead at the scene of the crash, reported at 9:21 a.m. in one of two divided westbound lanes about three miles east of the State Rt. 53 interchange for Fremont, said Sgt. Michael Ramsey of the Ohio Highway Patrol’s Milan post.

Mr. Kuhns was a passenger in a pickup driven by Paul C. Shoff, Jr., 73, of Warren, Ohio, that ran into the trailer of a semi that had struck the rig in front of it after being unable to stop in time for backed-up traffic, the patrol’s report said.

Mr. Shoff and another passenger in the pickup, David E. Kuhns, 18, of Middlefield, were taken to Fremont Memorial Hospital as was Walter S. Mozzochi, 46, of Homeworth, Ohio, the driver of a pickup involved in the initial collision.

Angelo J. Muscarello III, 50, of York, Maine, the driver whose truck started the crash, was treated at the scene, Sergeant Ramsey said.