Southeast Side intersection sees two die in two days

For the second day in a row, a traffic fatality has occurred during the afternoon commute at the same intersection along Gender Road on the Southeast Side.

Columbus police and paramedics were called to the intersection of Gender Road and Bennell Drive at 4:47 p.m. Thursday on a report of a pedestrian struck by a vehicle.

A man in his 50s, whose name was not being released yet because his relatives were being contacted, was struck by a northbound car on Gender Road, police said.

The critically injured pedestrian was taken to Mount Carmel East hospital, where he later died at 5:32 p.m, police said.

The Columbus police Accident Investigation Unit is trying to determine if the man was either trying to cross Gender Road or was struck while walking alongside the road.

Accident investigators on Thursday released the identity of a woman who was killed Wednesday afternoon in a single-vehicle crash at the same intersection, where Bennell, one of two entrances to the Independence Village East residential subdivision, meets Gender Road.

Letemariam G. Teferi, 34, of Columbus, was the driver of a Toyota SUV traveling north on Gender Road at 5:22 p.m. Wednesday when she went off the right side of the road, struck a guardrail and rolled over, investigators said. The cause of that crash remains under investigation.

The deaths are the 32nd and 33rd reported traffic fatalities this year in the city of Columbus.