Sean Price’s loved ones say they are grieving and angry after a wrong-way driver triggered a chain-reaction crash on I-71 that killed the 53-year-old Columbus man. Relatives say Price was thrown from his Ram 1500 after traffic slowed behind an earlier collision and his pickup burst into flames. Now the family says police and prosecutors owe them clear answers on how the crash happened and why the driver who started it all was able to leave the scene.
Video outlines the sequence
Traffic-camera video from the Ohio Department of Transportation, obtained and published by WBNS, shows a Chrysler Town & Country heading south in the northbound lanes of I-71 near East Broad Street. The minivan slams into a pickup, then into a semitruck.
Moments later, another semitruck plows into a Ram 1500 that had slowed for the initial wreck, and that pickup erupts in flames. The driver, identified as Price, was taken to a hospital and later pronounced dead. The footage, along with 911 calls, has fueled questions about how the wrong-way vehicle got onto the interstate in the first place and whether any intervention could have stopped the second, deadly impact, according to WBNS.
Family demands answers
Relatives describe Price as an avid Bengals fan, a jokester and an “amazing cook” whose death has left a hole in a large, close-knit family. “He was a shining example of a man,” his sister Tequila Williams told reporters. Family members told investigators they want full transparency and real accountability from officials, according to The Columbus Dispatch.
Relatives also said Price supported nine children, and they say that reality adds urgency to their questions about what went wrong and how the wrong-way driver managed to get onto I-71.
Who police say was driving
Police records identify the wrong-way driver as 58-year-old Joe Howard. Investigators say he was behind the wheel of the Chrysler Town & Country that first hit a northbound Ford F-150, then collided with a semitruck…