Northeast Suburban Life 03/13/19

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Northeast

SUBURBAN LIFE Your Community Press newspaper serving Blue Ash, Montgomery, Sycamore Township and other Northeast Cincinnati neighborhoods

WEDNESDAY, MARCH 13, 2019 ❚ BECAUSE COMMUNITY MATTERS ❚ PART OF THE USA TODAY NETWORK

Security changes set for Loveland public works Jeanne Houck Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Samantha Davis, 28, pictured March 1, sits between her attorneys during her trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. Davis faces aggravated vehicular homicide charges after she is alleged to have been driving a pickup that plummeted from an overpass onto Interstate 71, crushing a car below and killing a woman and her daughter on Aug. 6, 2016. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

‘It was utter chaos’

Pickup in fatal crash seemed to fall out of the sky Prosecutors say Davis was driving recklessly, under the infl uence of drugs in 2016 crash Kevin Grasha Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

Eyewitnesses said it was like a movie: The pickup seemed to fall out of the sky. It landed on a car heading south on Interstate 71, crushing the car and killing the two women inside. The impact was so violent, a wheel came off the pickup and embedded in the Nissan Altima’s hood.

Katherine Patterson was a passenger in a car one lane over. "That was almost us," she said she thought. Samantha Bullock was a passenger in another nearby vehicle. Her husband was driving. Her two young daughters were in the back seat. The noise of the Dodge Ram pickup hitting the Altima “was just so loud,” Bullock recently testifi ed in the trial of the woman who had been driving the pickup. One of its wheels, Bullock recalled, fl ew toward her side of the vehicle. She put up her arms in front of her face, bracing for the impact. But her husband was able to swerve

in time, and the wheel went past her door. Testimony in the trial of 28-yearold Samantha Davis – which recently began in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court – has revealed previously unheard accounts of the Aug. 6, 2016 crash. Prosecutors say Davis was driving recklessly and was under the infl uence of drugs as she rushed to her job as a server at Scrambler Marie’s, a Sharonville restaurant. Her shift started at 8 a.m., according to testimony. Davis' attorneys say what happened was a tragic accident. See CRASH, Page 2A

Defense: Bad tire sent pickup over bridge Kevin Grasha Cincinnati Enquirer USA TODAY NETWORK

It’s not clear what caused Samantha Davis to lose control of her pickup before it “ramped off ” an overpass and crushed a car on the highway below. Davis, herself, has incomplete memories of the Aug. 6, 2016 crash. She said she remembers hearing a noise and “feeling something.” She testifi ed last week she tried to keep the steering wheel straight, but “it was like it had a mind of its own.” An eyewitness, a state trooper, testifi ed that it seemed like Davis steered directly into the concrete wall of the overpass. At some point, Davis was ejected. The pickup fl ew 90 feet to Interstate 71, landing on a car, killing Sandra Tell and her daughter, Sabrina Miller. In a 911 call played for the jury in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court, a male caller said a vehicle "ramped off the bridge." Prosecutors said Davis, 28, was driving recklessly that morning and was un-

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Samantha Davis, seated, is being consoled by a family member March 1 during her trial in Hamilton County Common Pleas Court. KAREEM ELGAZZAR/THE ENQUIRER

der the infl uence of prescription drugs she may have snorted through a straw. "Was she self medicating?" Hamilton County Assistant Prosecutor Seth Tieg-

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er said in closing arguments Thursday. "Or is she somebody that just likes to get high?" Davis’ attorney, Philip Stephens, said Thursday that a damaged tire on the rusting, 1995 Dodge Ram caused the crash. Either the morning of the crash or a few days before – Davis’ statements to police and her testimony diff ered – the tire had been repaired with an aerosol product called Fix-a-Flat. Stephens said a mark found on the left side of the overpass was consistent with some kind of tire malfunction. “This accident was an awful, horrible tragedy that did horrible things to people who did not deserve it,” he told jurors during closing arguments. Davis, then a server at a Sharonville restaurant, was driving to work that morning from her mother's home in Norwood, where she was living. Prosecutors said she had stashed three PerSee DEFENSE, Page 2A

News: 248-8600, Retail advertising: 768-8404, Classified advertising: 242-4000, Delivery: 513-576-8240. See page A2 for additonal information

Loveland suspended its public works director for using city equipment on a side job and a second employee for destroying public records after blowing the whistle on the director. Now, Public Works Director Scott Wisby may sue Jason Brock, a crew leader in his department who touched off Loveland’s investigation of Wisby by leaving an anonymous letter of accusations on the city manager’s desk last October. And Loveland is making security and equipment-tracking changes in the public works department that will cost taxpayers about $19,000. The city said nothing publicly when it suspended Wisby for two weeks without pay last fall, and little in February when Brock emailed Loveland residents with his accusations – including some the city determined were false or could not be corroborated. In an unsigned statement posted on its website Feb. 14, Loveland said it took unspecifi ed disciplinary action against a public works employee it does not name for deeds it does not disclose due to privacy concerns. Information gathered by The Enquirer in Open Records requests shows the employee disciplined was Wisby and that he was suspended Nov. 7 after admitting he used a city painting machine mounted on a city trailer to stripe a commercial parking lot in Loveland on two days that his side business, Scott’s Blacktop Sealing, was sealing the lot. Wisby had also been suspended last Oct. 15 after admitting he “borrowed” a city riding mower he said was no longer used and — for just an hour – a city ballfi eld rake. Both were for personal use. Loveland’s Feb. 14 website statement also said the city is instituting undisclosed safeguards to prevent misconduct in the future. The Open Records paperwork shows Loveland decided to make changes that include: ❚ Installing a new security gate and video surveillance system at the public works campus at 10980 Loveland Madeira Road. ❚ See LOVELAND, Page 2A

Security changes are coming to Loveland's public works department. JEANNE HOUCK/THE ENQUIRER

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