Fatal Crash In Williams County

The Ohio State High­way Patrol is report­ing a fatal acci­dent Mon­day morn­ing in Williams County. It was around 7:45AM yes­ter­day when a mini van dri­ven by 21 year old Christo­pher Smith of West Unity report­edly swerved left of cen­ter on US-127 to avoid a vehi­cle that was stopped in the south­bound lane. The van was hit by a cement mixer trav­el­ing north, dri­ven by 55 year old Bruce Phillips of Bryan. Smith’s van then struck a Dodge Car­a­van dri­ven by Tim­o­thy Par­sons of Bryan, which was stopped at a stop sign. Smith’s van and the cement mixer went off the road and the cement mixer over­turned. Inside the van, was 21-year-old Chelsea Childers, 3-year-old Madi­son Smith, 1-year-old Matthew Smith, and 6-month-old Melanie Smith. Childers and Melanie Smith were flown to the hos­pi­tal. Melanie passed away and Childers is listed in crit­i­cal con­di­tion. The high­way patrol says all three chil­dren were in child safety seats and all peo­ple involved in the crash were wear­ing seat belts.