COLLEGE TOWNSHIP – Although Ohio State Police are not ready to say who’s responsible for a fatal two-car crash Wednesday in College Township, a trooper investigating the accident said the inquiry is focused on a couple of possibilities.

Trooper Caleb Cox of the Mount Gilead Post of the Ohio State Police told the Mount Vernon News that neither drugs nor alcohol are suspected in the crash that claimed the life of 21-year-old Gambier native Hope D. Woodward-Ginther and sent three others to the hospital.

The accident occurred at 2:45 p.m. on Wednesday, Dec. 2, when a 2013 Nissan Leaf driven by Rhen D. Woodward-Ginther, 18, also of Gambier, was broadsided by a Chrysler 300 driven by Braxton T. Snyder, 23, of Mount Vernon, at the intersection of State Route 229 and Township Road 259 (Laymon Road).

While Snyder escaped injury, Hope Woodward-Ginter died at the scene. Rhen Woodward-Ginther and two passengers, 17-year-old Elliot R. Hogue of Mount Vernon and 18-year-old Jericah J. Moore of Howard, were sent to the hospital. 

Woodward-Ginther and Moore remain patients at The Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus. Hogue is receiving treatment at Grant Medical Center in Columbus. All parties involved were wearing seat belts, Cox said.

“What we do know is Braxton was westbound on State Route 229,” he explained. “Rhen Woodward-Ginter was northbound on Road 259. He was in the middle of the intersection when (Braxton) was crossing the westbound lanes."

Cox emphasized the investigation was still ongoing and would likely not be completed until mid-next week.

“There are two options here: either Rhen Woodward-Ginther failed to yield at the stop sign or Braxton may have been traveling at a high rate of speed,” he said. “All that’s still under investigation. We don’t know either yet.”

Responding to the accident were Mount Vernon EMS, College Township EMS, East Knox EMS, Air Evac Lifestream and the Knox County Sheriff's Office.