1 Dead After What Witnesses Call ‘Street Race’
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RAW VIDEO: Fatal Crash On South James Road
CPD is investigating a fatal crash in which witnesses say vehicles were street-racing. Home video courtesy of an NBC 4 viewer.
Courtesy of an NBC 4 viewer.
UPDATE: CPD releases additional information on a fatal crash in which witnesses say vehicles were street-racing.
STATEMENT FROM NBC 4: Many of you have written to us or commented online regarding the video of a burning car attached to this story. We understand that some of you were upset over the posting of this video, however this video and the accompanying text story have been thoroughly screened by the management of NBC 4 and meets our journalistic standards. To those of you who have directed hurtful and negative comments to Donna Willis (Donna originally posted the story) we ask you to please stop as it adds nothing to the discussion and is unwarranted and unnecessary.
COLUMBUS, Ohio—Columbus police continued to investigate a fatal crash in which witnesses said vehicles were street-racing on the city’s East Side.
NBC 4 reported with the FAST FACTS.
Emergency crews were called to South James Road near Elbern Avenue on a report of an accident around 8:15 p.m. Tuesday.
Information in italic is from an official release from CPD.
Timothy N. Hartman, 29, was traveling southbound on South James Road south of East Broad Street.
Hartman was driving a 2001 silver Honda S2000.
Jeffrey S. Henry also was traveling southbound on James south of Broad.
Henry was driving a 2005 Black Ford F150 pickup.
As the vehicles approached Elbern Avenue, the car and pickup came into contact for currently unknown reasons, which caused both vehicles to leave the west side of the road.
Hartman’s vehicle struck a large tree.
Hartman was transported to Grant Medical Center with life-threatening injuries. He was pronounced dead at 8:48 p.m.
Henry was transported to Mount Carmel Medical Center East. He was treated and released.
Witnesses told police it looked like the truck was street-racing with another truck and the car was trying to get out of the way.
Hartman was ejected from the vehicle during the crash.
CPD did not confirm witness information and only named two vehicles.
It was the city’s 38th fatal traffic crash of 2009, and Columbus police was continuing its investigation.
No more immediate information was available.
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Reader Reactions
mcidguy / gabrielle - now I understand where you are coming from. I now do not think you are heartless! HAHA No need to attack me to get your opinion across and for not agreeing with you. Again, I guess this just hits a little close to home for me so I sympathize with the family and their being upset knowing there is a video of it.
I now will always read the story and the comments before I watch the videos attached. This time I didn’t cause again I thought it was the aftermath of what happened, not the crash itself.
From what I can gather from the article itself Hartman was an innocent driver and was not involved in the street racing. According to one witness they believed it was 2 trucks racing and the car was simply trying to get out of their way. The article doesn’t give any details as to what role Hartman was actually in, just the witnesses account. Anyone know the actual details on this yet?
Piggybacking on what Gabrielle wrote; I have driven hundreds of thousands of miles throughout the U.S. as a professionally licensed tour bus driver. The one constant I have seen throughout this great country is that Knuckleheads are not isolated to this city. I have witnessed several grisly accidents that have resulted from people racing, driving wrecklessly, etc. Alot of the time, people escape their actions unharmed. But in this case, what these Knuckleheads never thought would happen to them, did happen to them. This video should be used as a deterrant to younger drivers since I don’t believe that many of them understand the seriousness of their actions (good and bad) behind the wheel. The Knucklehead bug can hit anyone who drives. But you have to use better judgement when others are not. It may be hard at times, but if you remember this accident and scene, maybe it may save your life or someone elses. It’s unfortunate, but not only do we have to look out for our actions behind the wheel, we have to look out for the actions of Knuckleheads behind their wheels too. Be safe out there and use your better judgement to make good decisions on the road. Don’t take driving for granted. Ok, off my soapbox now ;-)
Also, I was not aware the the video may have been edited, but from what I have read, it seems appropriate as it is now posted. However, I think an argument can be made for not editing it and showing the driver after the fact.
What I meant by others benefiting from the video is people can know what happens when people do reckless things such as streetcar racing and it can prevent others from doing the same thing and causing accidents. When you visualize something it has more of an impact on people. So “patriot” please don’t make it seem like I would want people to watch a video out of fun. Not what I meant. And I agree with MCIdguy.
By the way, mciguy, when the video was originally posted, someone pointed out where the commentary mentioned the dead body of the ejected driver. Since then, it got edited, and that footage was removed. I feel the video is much better now, but I was appalled by what I saw when I first opened it last week.
I am glad channel 4 decided to edit it.
Pumma, I can only speak from my experience, and I feel you are unfairly tarring everyone who don;t like the video rather unfairly.
I work at the school where the deceased coached. I saw the news reports about this the night it aired, but did not know it was about him. Then I went online when I heard a rumor at school about Mr. Hartman’s death to get more facts. I remembered the news bit the night before, and clicked on the video. Instead of the news story from the night before, I was rather surprised, and unpleasantly shocked to see the scene where my coworker died.
Perhaps a little more understanding would go a long way - for all involved.
Ugh. Again, NBC4 was correct in their actions on posting this video. It documents what happened after the crash. It’s not supposed to offer insight into what happened, it just shows the aftermath. And again, if the family or others are upset over the video, then don’t navigate to this page. Simple as that. It was a knuckleheaded accident that made the news of the day. It wasn’t for anyone’s entertainment, it was documentary evidence for the article. I’m not sure how that’s too difficult to understand.
For you people bothered by the video and the news story then don’t open a news story that has key words such as “dead” and “car accident” or anything else relating to the words.
Also, if you played the video then blame yourself because it does not start automatically. The initial image on the video clip is a car on fire. What did you expect to see, a Disney show?
Again, I watched it before I read the article, my mistake. If you read back through the comments there were 15+ seperate people (not including myself) that didn’t think the video being posted was appropriate so its not like I’m coming out of left field here.
I posted my opinion which is what your supposed to do on this forum and I didn’t personally attack anyone on here. I saw a post that “Gabrielle” wrote “Let other people have that benefit” and I asked in response “who will benefit from seeing that video”. I was trying to have a legitimate discussion to understand why she felt the way she did. Again, I lost my father to a car crash so I can see why having a video of it available can be upsetting to some people. I can sympathize with them.
I just don’t understand what the purpose of the video would be other than for someones entertainment. It’s a short video and doesn’t really offer any insight to what actually happened.
Touché to Gabrielle! If it upsets you that much, then don’t watch it and don’t navigate to this page. (duh). NBC4 did nothing wrong. Their decision to post the video and to leave it up, is the correct decision. Not many people on this discussion have attempted to twist anything in regards to this article, except yourself.
Your opinion is respected, but your nonsense is not. Man, you’ve got us all pegged though! How did you know that we’re only interested in the entertainment factor of death and bad news? Wonder how much NBC4 made off of this one?
Unfortunately I watched the video before I even read the article because it was first. I didn’t think it was of the actual crash (normally someone isn’t there to catch these things while they actually happen), but of the aftermath, police investigating, cleaning up, etc.
Oh well, it’s just my opinion and apparently this guys friends & family. I guess it’s more about entertaining people and a quick buck now days.
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