A 26-year-old Akron woman died late Saturday night after her car crossed the median on Interstate 480 in Brooklyn Heights and slammed head-on into an oncoming SUV carrying three people from Illinois. Kreigh Grapel-Barnette was driving a 2007 Toyota Yaris eastbound near mile post 19 when she went off the left side of the roadway and into westbound traffic, according to the Ohio State Highway Patrol. She was wearing her seatbelt but was pronounced dead at MetroHealth after the collision.
The crash was reported at 11:27 p.m. Saturday, as detailed by Cleveland 19 News. Troopers say Grapel-Barnette’s Yaris collided head-on with a 2026 Subaru Outlander driven by 56-year-old James Mieczkowski of Oak Park, Illinois. His passengers, 64-year-old Brenda Massaroni and 23-year-old Alison Mieczkowski, both also of Oak Park, were riding with him. All three were wearing seatbelts and were transported to MetroHealth with what troopers described as minor injuries.
The eastbound Toyota crossing into westbound lanes means investigators will still need to determine what caused Grapel-Barnette to leave her lane in the first place. Ohio law separately requires drivers to stay on the right half of the roadway.
A Highway Already Under Scrutiny
The crash happened in a stretch of I-480 that state officials had flagged as dangerous just two months earlier. On July 31, the Ohio State Highway Patrol and the Ohio Department of Transportation relocated a regional traffic safety corridor to a 14-mile section of I-480 in Cuyahoga County after nearly 800 crashes and nine fatalities on the roadway over the prior two years, according to the Ohio Department of Transportation. The Brooklyn Heights segment sits adjacent to the Valley View Bridge…