{"id":26612,"date":"2012-07-16T06:15:04","date_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:15:04","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/?p=26612"},"modified":"2012-07-16T06:15:04","modified_gmt":"2012-07-16T11:15:04","slug":"2-killed-in-1-car-mercer-county-crash","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/2012\/07\/16\/2-killed-in-1-car-mercer-county-crash\/","title":{"rendered":"2 killed in 1-car Mercer County crash"},"content":{"rendered":"

Mercer County Sheriff\u2019s Dept. information<\/em><\/p>\n

ST. HENRY \u2013 A Coldwater driver in a hurry killed two passengers in a single-car accident in Mercer County early Saturday morning.<\/p>\n

Vincent A. Gragorace, 21, Greenville, and Craig A. Gengler, 22, of Celina, rear-seat passengers in a car driven by Ryan J. Billenstein, 27, of Coldwater, were pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which occurred on Ohio 119 and Fleetwood Road about 2:58 a.m. Saturday.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>According to Mercer County Sheriff Joel Grey, Mercer County Central Dispatch first received a call stating that an erratic driver was driving at a high rate of speed south on U.S. 127, south of Ohio 219. This vehicle was believed to be the one driven by Billenstein. The vehicle had also been stopped by a Coldwater police officer and issued a warning for failure to drive in the correct lanes of travel, just prior to the accident.<\/p>\n

According to Sheriff Grey, a 9-1-1 call was then received about the accident and deputies were dispatched to the crash area. According to investigators, Billenstein was driving a 2006 Pontiac GTO west on Ohio 119 at what appeared to be a high rate of speed. He then lost control of the vehicle, which veered off the south side the highway and struck two trees before coming to rest and then bursting into flames.<\/p>\n

Billenstein and a front-seat passenger, Bethany M. Wentworth, 21, of Greenville, got out of the vehicle and were taken to Mercer Health in Coldwater by the St. Henry EMS squad. Billenstein also pulled Gengler from the burning vehicle, but Gragorace was trapped inside. Both men died from injuries received in the crash.<\/p>\n

At this time, deputies are not sure if those in the crash were wearing seatbelts or if air bags deployed, because the car was totally destroyed in the accident. The investigation is continuing.<\/p>\n

Deputies were assisted at the scene by St. Henry Fire Department, Mercer County Emergency Response Volunteers and Matt Fox of the Mercer County Prosecutor\u2019s Office.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mercer County Sheriff\u2019s Dept. information ST. HENRY \u2013 A Coldwater driver in a hurry killed two passengers in a single-car accident in Mercer County early Saturday morning. Vincent A. Gragorace, 21, Greenville, and Craig A. Gengler, 22, of Celina, rear-seat passengers in a car driven by Ryan J. Billenstein, 27, of Coldwater, were pronounced dead […]<\/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-26612","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-news"],"publishpress_future_action":{"enabled":false,"date":"2026-04-27 18:19:17","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\/26612","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=26612"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/26612\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=26612"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=26612"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/thevwindependent.com\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=26612"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}