Ohio driver jailed without bond after Murrysville crash, police say
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An Ohio driver is in the Westmoreland County Prison without bond on multiple criminal and traffic charges after a two-vehicle crash in Murrysville that seriously injured an area couple last week.
Mark C. Venable, 37, of West Carrollton, located near Dayton, was charged with driving without a license and suspicion of driving under the influence of a controlled substance after he was released Friday from AHN Forbes Hospital in Monroeville. He was treated for a neck and chest injury after the crash that occurred at 7:05 p.m. Thursday.
Police say witnesses reported that Venable pulled out of a parking lot at the corner of the Golden Mile Highway and Saltsburg Road in his 2001 Jeep Cherokee into the path of a westbound Nissan sedan.
A woman in the Nissan was initially treated at the scene for multiple injuries and then flown by medical helicopter to UPMC Presbyterian hospital in Pittsburgh, according to court documents. The man who was driving was taken by ambulance to an area hospital for serious multiple injuries, police said.
Police recovered a suspected methamphetamine pipe laying on the ground outside the door of the Jeep at the crash scene, according to court records. Police reported that when they arrived, they found Venable standing outside his vehicle in a nearby lot at the crash scene “walking around in circles, visibly distraught.”
After initially denying that he had taken narcotics, police reports allege that Venable admitted to a policeman who accompanied him to Forbes hospital that he had smoked methamphetamine two days earlier.
Police said Venable consented at the hospital to a forensic blood analysis.
Witnesses also told police Venable did not have his vehicle’s lights on at the time of the crash, according to court documents.
District Judge Charles R. Conway ordered Venable held in the county jail without bail. A hearing is scheduled Nov. 23.