{"id":190324,"date":"2025-03-04T17:51:50","date_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:51:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/?p=190324"},"modified":"2025-03-04T17:51:53","modified_gmt":"2025-03-04T22:51:53","slug":"crash-claims-a-life-in-paulding-county","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2025\/03\/04\/crash-claims-a-life-in-paulding-county\/","title":{"rendered":"Crash claims a life in Paulding County"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<p><em>VW independent staff\/submitted information<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a two-vehicle fatal traffic crash that occurred early Tuesday afternoon on U.S. 24, near milepost 18 in Paulding County\u2019s Emerald Township.<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"alignright size-full\"><img decoding=\"async\" width=\"150\" height=\"199\" src=\"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2018\/07\/OSHP-Logo-e1532741570657.jpg\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-105227\"\/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p>The preliminary investigation revealed that a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu operated by Michael K. Zelek, 62, of Canton, Michigan, was traveling westbound on U.S. 24 when his vehicle crossed through the grass median and entered the eastbound lanes of U.S. 24. Zelek\u2019s car was struck by an eastbound 2024 GMC Sierra operated by David L. Stevens, 44, of Mooresville, Indiana. The GMC Sierra continued off the right side of the roadway and overturned.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Zelek was pronounced deceased at the scene. Stevens and a passenger, Hunter J. Walters, 24, of Greenfield, Indiana, were transported from the scene by Defiance Fire &amp; Rescue to ProMedica Defiance Regional Hospital for injuries suffered in the crash.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>The Ohio State Highway Patrol was assisted on scene by the Paulding County Sheriff\u2019s Office, Paulding Fire and EMS, Defiance Fire and Rescue, Paulding County Coroner\u2019s Office, the Ohio Department of Transportation, and Hague Towing and Repair.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>VW independent staff\/submitted information The Van Wert Post of the Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a two-vehicle fatal traffic crash that occurred early Tuesday afternoon on U.S. 24, near milepost 18 in Paulding County\u2019s Emerald Township. The preliminary investigation revealed that a 2011 Chevrolet Malibu operated by Michael K. Zelek, 62, of Canton, Michigan, [&hellip;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-190324","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-08-04 17:30:55","action":"change-status","newStatus":"draft","terms":[],"taxonomy":"category","extraData":[]},"publishpress_future_workflow_manual_trigger":{"enabledWorkflows":[]},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190324","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=190324"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190324\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":190325,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/190324\/revisions\/190325"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=190324"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=190324"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=190324"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}