A report completed by the Ohio State Highway Patrol says the driver of a Boardman Township fire truck that crashed on Shields Rd. on Nov. 26, 2014 operated the pumper truck without reasonable control.
      A copy of the State Patrol’s report in the crash was obtained by The Boardman News from the Boardman Fire Department.
      Township Administrator Jason Loree said that Fire Chief Mark Pitzer informed trustees that the pumper truck, driven by fire-fighter Ben Poole, 27, swerved to miss a deer near 2:00 a.m., just west of the intersection of West Blvd. and Shields Rd. and ended up in a ditch. The fire truck, and three firemen, were on their way to a call of a diabetic emergency on West Midlothian Blvd. at the time of crash.
      The OSP report makes no mention of the deer.
      The OSP report notes a utility pole was sheared-off during the accident, and a transformer fell off the pole.
      “HazMat was called to the scene for five gallons of oil that spilled from the transformer into the ditch,” Trooper Tim Dobbins reported.
      Loree and Assistant Fiscal Officer George Platton said the fire truck, a 1999 pumper truck, was totaled. Damages were upwards of $90,000, Loree said.
      Poole appeared in Boardman Court in December and was found guilty of failing to control, fined $20 and ordered to pay $80 in court costs.
      Since the accident, Platton said the township has been leasing a pumper truck.
      The accident seems to have a silver lining for Boardman Township.
      Loree said that insurance provider for the township totaled the truck and a new truck, valued at some $500,000, will be delivered to the fire department, likely sometime this summer, at no cost to the township.