A 73-year-old Kettlersville village council member was killed early Thursday, October 1, when the car she was driving failed to yield at a stop sign and was struck by a westbound concrete mixer at a rural Shelby County intersection. Ida Kaminsky died at the scene after her 2019 Buick Encore pulled south onto State Route 29 from McCartyville Road and into the path of the oncoming truck.
According to WKEF, officers responded to the crash in Van Buren Township shortly after 6:30 a.m., and the Shelby County Coroner's Office pronounced Kaminsky dead at the scene. The Sidney Daily News reports the collision happened at 6:31 a.m. and is being investigated by troopers from the Ohio State Highway Patrol's Piqua Post, which covers Darke, Miami, and Shelby counties. WCSM Radio identified the driver as Kaminsky, of Kettlersville, Ohio.
The concrete mixer, a 2013 Phoenix model, was driven by 39-year-old Carlton Nusbaum of Rockford, Ohio, and was heading west on SR 29 at the time of the crash, per WKEF's reporting. Preliminary findings indicate Kaminsky's Buick failed to yield at the stop sign on McCartyville Road before entering the highway into the truck's path.
Kaminsky served as an elected member of Kettlersville's village council, according to municipal records published by the Sidney Daily News. Her death marks a loss for the small Shelby County village.
The stretch of SR 29 between State Route 274 and McCartyville Road had also just come out of months of active roadwork. Per traffic updates from the Ohio Department of Transportation, the corridor underwent repaving from May through September 2026, with intermittent single-lane closures and flagging operations along the route.
Yield Laws and Statewide Crash Trends
Failing to yield at a stop sign in Ohio is typically charged as a minor misdemeanor, carrying penalties of up to $150 in fines, two license points, and up to 30 hours of community service, according to legal analysis from the Law Office of C.F. Cowan, P.L.L.C. Whether any charges will follow in this case has not been determined, as the state patrol's full crash reconstruction remains ongoing.
Statewide, failure to yield the right-of-way and running stop signs remain among the leading contributing factors in fatal motor vehicle crashes, according to Ohio State Highway Patrol data released in March. The agency has also urged commercial haulers and heavy equipment operators to conduct rigorous pre-trip safety checks, part of a broader push on commercial vehicle oversight given the severity of collisions between large trucks and passenger cars.
Van Buren Township Fire and EMS assisted the state patrol at the scene, along with the Shelby County Sheriff's Office, the Shelby County Coroner's Office, and the Ohio Department of Transportation, per WKEF. The investigation into Thursday's crash remains ongoing.
