A teenage driver and a Rumpke garbage truck driver were both seriously injured in a pair of crashes that unfolded within moments of each other early Monday on State Route 32 near Lawshe Road in Adams County. The teen lost control of a 2002 Chevrolet Trailblazer, rolled it into the opposite lanes, and moments later a loaded refuse truck slammed into the disabled SUV, sending both vehicles careening further across the highway.
How the First Crash Unfolded
According to the WKEF, the teen was headed west on SR 32 near Lawshe Road when his Trailblazer went off the side of the road. Per the Ohio State Highway Patrol, he overcorrected and rolled the SUV multiple times, and it came to rest in the eastbound lanes. As reported by WHIO-TV, the rollover happened around 3:30 a.m. as the teen drifted off the right edge of the roadway before overcorrecting across the median into oncoming traffic.
The disabled Trailblazer was still sitting in the eastbound lanes when 33-year-old Ryan Davis of Lynx, Ohio, driving a 2025 International refuse truck eastbound, collided with it, the same station reports. The impact sent the garbage truck across the grass median into the westbound lanes, where it struck a guardrail before finally coming to rest, according to that outlet's reporting.
Injuries and Hospital Transports
The teen driver was seriously hurt and flown by Air Care helicopter to UC Medical Center, while Davis was taken by EMS ground crews to Adams County Regional Medical Center with serious injuries, per the station's report. The teen's condition has not been disclosed. Ohio State Highway Patrol formally identified the teen as the driver of the Trailblazer, though his name has not been released.
Rumpke confirmed it is working with the Ohio State Highway Patrol as troopers continue investigating both crashes. Scott Barnhizer, Rumpke's region safety manager, said the company's thoughts are with both drivers involved in the collision.
A Dangerous Stretch of Highway
SR 32, known as the James A. Rhodes Appalachian Highway, runs 182.7 miles across southern Ohio as a high-speed four-lane divided route outside the Cincinnati beltway, according to Wikipedia. Troopers out of the OSHP Georgetown Post regularly patrol the corridor for extreme speeding in Adams County, including once citing a driver going 106 mph in a posted 60 mph zone, per a report from WLWT. This crash marks the latest in a string of serious collisions along the corridor that Hoodline has covered in recent weeks, including a pedestrian killed near Eastgate and a fatal e-bike crash investigated by the same OSHP post.
State data point to a broader pattern behind crashes like this one. Ohio State Highway Patrol records show drivers aged 15 to 24 were involved in 154,363 traffic crashes statewide between 2023 and 2024, with youth driver actions contributing to 63 percent of those collisions, according to an OSHP statement shared on Facebook. The agency's safety data identifies driving off the roadway and subsequent overcorrection as two of the leading causes behind youthful driver rollovers in Ohio, a pattern that mirrors what troopers described in the SR 32 crash.
The Risks Facing Commercial Waste Haulers
The second half of the crash sequence highlights a different kind of danger, one facing commercial drivers on rural highways. Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration data cited by Curcio & Casciato indicates refuse and garbage trucks are involved in roughly 1,200 to 1,500 crashes and around 100 fatalities nationally each year, with fully loaded waste vehicles weighing up to 80,000 pounds and requiring far longer stopping distances. Bureau of Labor Statistics figures referenced in that same reporting put the occupational fatality rate for refuse and recyclable material collectors at 37.4 deaths per 100,000 workers, more than 11 times the national average, with transportation collisions the leading cause of on-the-job death in the field.
Ohio State Highway Patrol's investigation into both crashes remains ongoing. It's not yet clear what travel speeds were involved, how visible the disabled Trailblazer was to oncoming traffic in the dark, or whether either driver will face citations once troopers complete their review.
