Byesville man drowns after driving into flooded roadway, sheriff says
BYESVILLE, Ohio (WCMH) — A man drowned after apparently driving on a flooded roadway on Wednesday, according to the Guernsey County Sheriff.
Sheriff Jeffrey Paden said emergency responders found 56-year-old Karl Eric Wickham dead in his vehicle after extracting it from a flooded roadway in Jackson Township. His family had reported him missing on Wednesday afternoon after he didn’t show up to work and was not answering his phone.
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After several hours of searching, Byesville volunteer firefighters found the man’s vehicle completely submerged, the sheriff said. When the vehicle was removed from the water, the Guernsey County coroner pronounced the man dead and ruled his death an accident by drowning.
Multiple roadways across central Ohio flooded after Tuesday’s storms. On Wednesday morning, a man’s Maserati SUV was towed to dry land after he drove past road closure signs and ended up in flood waters on U.S. 23 in south Columbus. Ohio Department of Transportation cameras caught the man wading through knee-high water toward Franklin County Sheriff’s deputies.
Paden urged drivers to avoid flooded roadways, regardless of their depth, because water currents can often be stronger than they appear.
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