Crash kills two high school students
DELAWARE — Two rising seniors at Olentangy Liberty High School were killed Monday in a two-vehicle crash on a Delaware County road.
According to the State Highway Patrol, Gavin D. Schlotterbeck, 17, of Powell, was driving north on Africa Road, just south of Summerwood Crossing near Alum Creek State Park shortly after 11 a.m., when his Toyota Camry went off the right side of the road. Schlotterbeck turned back sharply to the left, authorities said, crossing into the southbound lane and crashing into an oncoming Jeep Wrangler driven by Emily R. Bensi, 19, of Westerville.
Schlotterbeck and his passenger, Hunter D. McClelland, 17, who would have been seniors this year at Olentangy Liberty High, were pronounced dead at the scene, the patrol said.
Bensi and her passenger, 12-year-old Geneva Day, of Columbus, whom she was baby-sitting, were taken to OhioHealth Riverside Methodist Hospital and Nationwide Children’s Hospital, respectively, each with injuries that are not life-threatening.
Neither excessive speed nor alcohol was believed to be a factor in the crash, said Lt. Marcus Pirrone of the patrol’s Delaware post.
“A lot of these crashes today are failure to pay attention, failure to keep your eyes on the road,” Pirrone said.
Sharp skid marks on the pavement showed the Camry’s path going into the grass, back to the berm and then across the road into the path of the Jeep.
Calling the deaths “heartbreaking,” Olentangy schools Superintendent Mark Raiff said in an earlier statement: “We are deeply saddened by the tragic news of the passing of two of our Liberty High School students this morning. In the coming days, we will do everything possible to support our students and families.
“... We’ve dealt with these tragedies in the past, and our community will rally around the families and support them any way possible.”
In December, when a private plane crashed into Lake Erie shortly after departing Cleveland’s Burke Lakefront Airport, the six dead included Jack Fleming, 15, a freshman at Liberty; Megan Casey, 19, a former student there; and Andrew Fleming, an eighth-grader from the district who attended the Ohio School for the Blind.
In the wake of Monday’s crash, Raiff said counselors and support-staff members will be made available for the many Olentangy students now participating in sports and band activities at Liberty High, which is at 3584 Home Road.
Michele Niklaus had just driven out of her subdivision when she came upon the crash scene and saw a woman believed to be Bensi crawling and waving for help. Niklaus was the first to call 911.
“I felt bad there wasn’t more I could do,” Niklaus said, noting that her 16-yearold daughter is learning to drive.
“It’s completely horrifying to put your child out on the road every day,” she said. “... My heart goes out to all of the parents.”
Pirrone, who was going with a chaplain to notify a family of one of the victims, paused to wipe his eyes.
“Juveniles are the worst, when you have to go tell a parent,” he said.