It is an unimaginable, unthinkable tragedy, and that is why investigators continue working this evening to piece together the information collected today at the incident scenes in Warwood and along the Washington Ave. on-ramp that resulted in a fatality of a Bridgeport, Ohio women.
Philip Stahl, public information officer for the Wheeling Police Department, released that police officers had identified the victim as 54-year-old Michelle Lynn Czoka. According to reports, she was struck by a pick-up truck in front of the Warwood Commons Development. The cause of death will be determined by the state Medical Examiner’s Office.
For local media and residents alike, the tragic incident officially started with this release from the Wheeling PD:
Wheeling PD is investigating a pedestrian fatality in the 100 block of Warwood Avenue/ WV State Route 2. At 6:36 a.m., officers were dispatched for a report of a vehicle hitting a pedestrian, but when officers arrived, a victim could not be located. Shortly after, a second 911 call was made at the Interstate 70 Washington Avenue eastbound exit ramp for a vehicle that appeared to be dragging a body.
Further investigation led police investigators to believe a woman was hit by a pickup truck in Warwood and then dragged by a second vehicle to the Washington Avenue area.
“Over your career in this field, you see a lot of horrific things like people getting hit by vehicles and getting thrown so far from the scene. Just horrible,” explained Lou Vargo, director of the Ohio County Emergency Management Agency. “But to have a victim be dragged that far of a distance? No, I have never seen anything like this before. Fatalities, yes. This? No.
“What path the driver took will be a part of the reconstruction of the incidents both in Warwood and along the Washington Ave. exit,” Vargo said. “It’s an important conversation with the driver because at the time of this incident was very close to when access to Wheeling Tunnel from 10th Street was close to closing. So that’s the question, which route did she take to get to where she stopped after a lot of other motorist flagged her down?”
From the point at which the initial accident took place, the second driver had several options while traveling south to navigate to arrive to Exit 2B.
“Figuring those things out is part the process, and I am sure the team working it this knows that information by now,” he said this afternoon. “But I’m not certain when that information for be released to the media.
“It’s up to the police department as far what information they release,” he continued. “At this point, there’s still a lot of work that needs to be done by those who are investigating this, so when will all the details be released, I don’t know.”
