Previously the coroner identified 18-year-old Brett M. Helsley of Bunker Hill, West Virginia.
UPDATE @ 3:05 p.m. (Aug. 30):
All three of the people killed in a crash Wednesday morning on U.S. 35, just west of Xenia, were from West Virginia, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol.
The only person to be identified is the driver, 18-year-old Brett M. Helsley of Bunker Hill, W.Va. Police in West Virginia are assisting troopers with identifying Helsley’s passengers, who did not have any identification.
UPDATE @ 9:23 a.m. (Aug. 30):
State troopers have identified the driver in a deadly crash on U.S. 35 west of Xenia as a teen from Bunker Hill, West Virginia.
Brett M. Helsley, 18, was killed in the crash along with two passengers, troopers said.
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Officials are still working to identify the other two killed in the crash. They did not have any type of identification on them at the time of the crash, troopers said.
UPDATE @7:50 a.m. (Aug. 30):
Officials are still working to identify the victims.
The driver had a West Virginia driver’s license, however, police have been unable to contact that individual’s next of kin, the Xenia Post of the Ohio Highway Patrol said Thursday morning.
The two passengers did not have any identification on them, the state troopers said.
FIRST REPORT:
Three people were killed Wednesday when their vehicle rear-ended a semitrailer that was stopped in traffic because of an earlier crash on U.S. 35 West in Xenia.
Traffic was backed up for hours through the city of Xenia after the crash happened early Wednesday afternoon in the westbound lanes of U.S. 35 just west of the U.S. 42 interchange.
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The three victims were all men between the ages of 18 and 20, according to Sgt. Matt Cleaveland of the Ohio State Highway Patrol Xenia Post.
The driver had a West Virginia license and was driving a Honda Prelude that was registered in that state, Cleaveland said.
The Prelude was traveling at a high rate of speed, 65 mph or faster, when it struck a tanker truck that was stopped in traffic because of an earlier crash, Cleaveland said.
Cleaveland said witnesses to the crash reported that the Prelude had been driving erratically prior to the crash.
“We’ve had several statements, written statements from people that observed the driving prior to the crash as very erratic,” he said. “Slow speeds. High speeds. Running a few people off the road. At this point we’re not sure what caused this behavior or what their intent was.”
The occupants were not wearing seat belts, but it’s too early to tell if using them would have changed the outcome, Cleaveland said.
This is the fourth fatal crash in Greene County this year, bringing the total number of people killed on Greene’s roadways in 2018 to six, according to statistics provided by the patrol. Fatal crashes are down this year compared to last year. There were 22 people killed in a total of 16 fatal crashes in 2017, according to the patrol.
“This is very frustrating for us. It’s a senseless way for three young men to lose their lives,” Cleaveland said. “We work this area very heavily. It is a high-crash area. It’s one of our main focuses in this county. To see this happen it’s tough, very tough.”
The top four leading causes of crashes in 2017 were following too closely, failure to control, failure to yield and improper lane change, according to Greene County Public Health and the Greene County Safe Communities Coalition.