Dozens gathered at the non-denominational church on Burbank Avenue to share memories, prayers and lots of tears. Middletown Mayor Larry Mulligan attended the services to express his condolences on behalf of the city.
“When you are talking children and vacation Bible school and a pastor’s wife, it’s certainly a tragic circumstance,” Mulligan said. “We have a tight-knit faith community here in Middletown, so I think it’s important that we show our support and rally together and express our condolences and our sorrow and celebrate where we can.”
Kristi Byrd, who attends The Church at Mayfield, said the fatal crash has been hard on everybody in the church.
“It breaks everyone’s heart to know that something like this has happened to these kids and to Judi and to Jan,” she said. “Jan was just a very sweet woman, and Judi, I’ve never seen anybody love these kids more…She loves these children more than her own, and she’d never do anything to put them in harm’s way.
She just wanted to get them to church,” Byrd said.
Cause of crash still undetermined
There was still no definitive answer Wednesday for what caused Judith Ashley to speed through the crossing gate at the 14th Avenue railroad crossing around 6:50 p.m. Tuesday and into a passing CSX train.
At the time of the crash, the crossing gate, bell and lights were all fully functional and there were no skid marks to indicate the van was braking before the crash, according to state troopers at the scene.
Sgt. Brian Bost, of the Ohio Highway Patrol, which contracts with the city of Middletown to handle traffic crashes, said the accident remains under investigation, but did share details from a preliminary report. He said the driver of the gray 2002 Ford Econoline van and the nine children onboard were all wearing seatbelts and both the driver and front seat passenger airbags were deployed.
But Warren County Coroner Investigator Doyle Burke said Wednesday that Martin, who was riding in the front passenger seat, was not wearing a seatbelt and that rescue crews found her on the floor board of the van.
Bost said the van was designed to transport 9 to 10 passengers, and there are no special licenses, such as a CDL, required to drive a van for a church. He said Ashley had a valid operator’s license.
A check of online records at Middletown Municipal Court showed Ashley had four speeding tickets going back to 1989 with the last ticket issued in 2007. Each time she paid the fine for the ticket.
Bost said no charges would be filed until the investigation is completed, which could take up to a month. He said additional interviews and tests as well as a review of medical records will need to be conducted before any specific charges can be determined.
“Once our investigation is completed, we will take all of our information to the Middletown city prosecutor before coming to a conclusion of what charges will be filed,” he said.
Lt. Clint Arnold, of the OSP, said investigators aren’t ruling out anything — including whether the driver was distracted or the sun might have obstructed her vision.
Pastor at wife’s side
Ever since the accident, the Rev. Gary Ashley said he has remained at his wife’s side. He hadn’t slept all night and didn’t want to discuss the accident.
The vacation Bible school at his church, themed “Discover His plan, Discover His purpose,” has been cancelled for the rest of this week. There’s “too much going on,” he said.
Rev. Ashley called Wednesday “the toughest day of my life,” but also a “blessed day” because of the steady stream of visitors to the hospital. He said he’s still numb.
“All we can do is trust the Lord,” he said Wednesday afternoon during a phone interview. “I don’t have the answers to what you want to know. I don’t know what to say. God didn’t put me in management.”
The minister said he feels the pain knowing his congregation lost a family member and several children were injured.
“I wish it was me and not somebody else,” he said.
He paused and added: “Those are cheap words I know.”
The Ashleys have been married for 39 years. He served as pastor at Elizabethtown Church in Germantown since 2001 and was named interim pastor at Mayfield in June, replacing Brian Cox. The Church of Mayfield was founded in 1949 and is located at 3311 Burbank Ave.
Janice Martin remembered
Cox, who stepped down as pastor about a month ago, led Wednesday’s prayer service in Rev. Ashley’s absence. He remembered Martin as having “a servant’s heart, who had the heartbeat of God.”
Cox said Martin had been a member of the church for less than two years but had become active with the children’s ministry.
“She loved helping with the kids and helping Judi pick them up and take them home,” Cox said. “Jan had a sweet spirit and loved those kids and all she ever wanted to do is help these kids.
“Jan is walking in the streets of heaven … and I can rejoice in that,” he said.
While Martin lived alone in the 1600 block of Sheridan Avenue in Middletown, her neighbors said she was like family to them. They said she frequently visited her next-door neighbors, and she and Joyce Rose enjoyed attending events at the adult care center in Franklin and shopping at the Dollar Store.
“She was my best friend,” said Rose, who started to cry as she leaned on her niece, Holly Rose, as they stood on the porch. “We did stuff together and now she’s gone. It shocked me.”
Holly Rose, who has known Martin for seven years, called Martin her aunt, though they weren’t related.
“We shared everything but blood,” Rose said. “She’s a wonderful, caring and kind person and nobody ever will be like her.”
They said Martin owned a cat, Sam, and they hope someone in the area adopted the cat. On Wednesday, they turned on a fan in Martin’s house to keep her cat cool.
Injured kids helpful to first responders
The children injured in the van-train collision were all released from area hospitals — seven had been taken to Atrium and two to Children’s Hospital’s Liberty Twp. campus.
The Middletown Division of Police posted a message on its Facebook page Wednesday crediting the young people with helping medics sort things out at the chaotic crash scene.
“In Middletown, we believe that even the most unfortunate events can lead to a message that can ultimately help friends and neighbors,” the post read. “Yesterday evening, there was an accident involving a vehicle and a train in Middletown. As victims were transported for help, the young patients were able to correctly tell medics their names and personal information, and it was found to that they knew their information because they had been through the Safety Town program. This helped the medics to contact the kids’ families…”
Middletown Fire Chief Paul Lolli said Police Chief Rodney Muterspaw shared the story with him during a meeting Wednesday at the City Building.
“The kids really impressed the hospital personnel because they were able to give their names, addresses and phone numbers, and said they learned that stuff in Safety Town,” Lolli said. “One of the kids recently graduated from Safety Town.”
First known crash/fatality at the 14th Street rail crossing
CSX crews were at the crossing on 14th Avenue Wednesday morning repairing the damaged crossing guards. Melanie Cost, a spokesperson for CSX, issued the following statement: “Our thoughts are with everyone affected by the accident in Middletown.”
She said CSX is cooperating fully with the investigation by the State Highway Patrol. Cost declined a request from this news outlet for a copy of the train’s video of the crash, saying that “CSX video surveillance is for investigation purposes and not publicly available.”
According to City Planner Marty Kohler, the rail tracks crossing 14th Avenue is a part of a spur that starts from behind Cohen’s facility on Woodlawn Avenue and crosses 14th Avenue, Lafayette Avenue and goes to a track yard behind Midd Cities Industrial Park facility off South Verity Parkway and continuing by another scrapyard owned by Cohen. The CSX tracks continue on to New Miami.
The Federal Railroad Administration’s database indicates there was no history of a crash or fatality at the 14th Avenue rail crossing before Tuesday night.
PUCO spokesman Matt Schilling said that in 2014 there were 78 train/vehicle crashes at public crossings statewide, with four fatalities. None of the fatalities were in Butler or Warren counties.
Schilling said the speed limit on the track at 14th Avenue is 10 mph, and the average speed of trains along those tracks is 5 mph. At the time of Tuesday’s crash, the train was going at 2 mph, he said.
According to PUCO records, Butler County has had five fatal vehicle-train crashes going back to 2006 and Warren County has had no fatal crashes going back to 1999.
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