Columbus police found and charged a woman who they say stopped her minivan after missing an exit on Interstate 71 in April, causing three cars behind her to crash in a viral traffic camera video.
But her citation came after police charged the wrong person.
Once the video of the April 30 crash spread across social media, police revisited the case and dropped the initial charges against Martin Fuhrman, who suffered injuries in the crash and received a citation for failing to maintain a clear assured distance.
The Vermillion resident said he was shocked when he received the citation, and relieved when police dropped the charges.
“I was like, ‘I’m getting the ticket?'” Fuhrman said in a July 15 interview with The Dispatch.
The incident at the center of the mishap happened about 5:30 p.m., April 30, on the southbound lane of Interstate 71 near the Interstate 670 interchange.
A 41-year-old Reynoldsburg woman was driving a red Dodge Caravan south on I-71 when she came to a complete stop in the center lane near the ramp to Interstate 670, according to a crash report and video footage from the Ohio Department of Transportation.
One vehicle stopped behind her, then a second. Fuhrman’s van slammed into the two stopped vehicles.
After a moment, the red Dodge took the exit toward I-670, driving away unscathed. The crash report notes that the three other vehicles were disabled.
The video went viral after ODOT Press Secretary Matt Bruning posted it to his X account. About 44 million people have viewed it since.
Fuhrman said he suffered broken ribs in the crash. He was “in shock” afterward, but he did notice the red Dodge leaving the scene, and wondered if there had been a collision ahead of him.
Fuhrman said he doesn’t harbor any ill will toward Columbus police over the charges. They called him a day or two later to inform him that the charges were dropped. He said they responded quickly to the accident, and he admired their diligence in tracking down the other driver.
“It took them like three weeks,” he said. “The officer was very persistent, and so I appreciate all his hard work.”
Columbus police did not respond to a request for an interview for this story.
On May 19, police charged the woman with reckless operation of a motor vehicle in willful or wanton disregard of others’ safety, a third-degree misdemeanor. She faces up to 60 days in jail and a fine of up to $500, and has pleaded not guilty to the charge.
Police followed up on the crash after ODOT posted the video “due to the media attention,” the officer tasked with finding the driver wrote in a statement of fact filed in the Franklin County Municipal Court.
The initial crash report made no mention of the Dodge at all, and didn’t classify the crash as a hit-and-run, the officer noted.
The officer searched for red 2014-2016 Dodge Caravans registered in Franklin County and found 254 vehicles, according to court records. He then searched the vehicles in the city’s Flock camera database and matched one of them with the vehicle involved in the crash based on a small window sticker that appeared in both ODOT footage and Flock footage.
That led him to a daycare center, and the center’s owner called the woman who was driving the Dodge at the time. She admitted she was driving at the time, according to court records.
The officer spoke to the woman on the phone and said that she admitted to making a complete stop on the interstate after her GPS told her she needed to take the exit onto I-670, according to court records. She also told the officer she was aware of the crash behind her.
Fuhrman said he has mostly recovered from the crash, but he’s “paranoid” now when he drives, fearing another crash. He had never been in a collision before the April 30 crash and had a perfectly clean driving record, he said.
“If they didn’t have the footage, I would’ve been charged,” Fuhrman said. “I’m glad they had the footage.”
Public Safety and Breaking News Reporter Bailey Gallion can be reached at bagallion@dispatch.com.
(This story was updated to add a photo gallery.)
This article originally appeared on The Columbus Dispatch: Ohio police initially charged the wrong person in viral I-71 video