Vehicle just misses Johnston ice cream shop
8 suffer minor injuries

Staff photo / Thomas Wills Yellow fire-line tape marked the scene and an overhead utility wire at Bacconi’s Lickety Split on Greenville Road, which serves ice cream and other frozen treats on Greenville Road in Johnston Township. Witnesses said a northbound 2014 Chevrolet Traverse struck a utility pole and then a 2018 Ford F-150 pickup truck.
JOHNSTON — It can be said that an ice cream shop here closed its summer season Sunday with a bang, after a motorist mishap pushed a vehicle and debris into customers near the shop’s windows.
Hannah Chilson, 17, of Bristolville, was working inside of Bacconi’s Lickety Split, which serves ice cream and other frozen treats on Greenville Road in the township, when witnesses said an eastbound 2014 Chevrolet Traverse that had gone off the right side of the roadway struck a utility pole — and then struck a 2018 Ford F-150 pickup truck.
“The car hit the pole and then came and hit the truck, and the truck turned and came two to three feet from the shop,” she said. There were three families in line about 11:45 a.m. — eight people total — who went running and screaming, she added.
The Ohio State Highway Patrol’s Warren Post reported the truck did strike the people in line: The eight people received minor injuries, including four juveniles. They were treated at the scene.
The Traverse continued through the parking lot and also hit a black Chevrolet HHR.
Sunday was Bacconi’s last day of seasonal business until March. Hannah said she has worked there two years and had never seen anything like this, admitting it scared her a little.
A Johnston Fire and EMS paramedic only said the driver of the Traverse SUV, a man believed to be in his 50s, was taken to St. Elizabeth Youngstown Hospital for non-life-threatening injuries.
Yellow fire-line tape marked the scene and also an overhead utility wire, and the sheared and sawed-up utility pole was on the grass. Debris from the pole struck some of the people, too, the state patrol reported.
When James Barnes of Allen’s Towing arrived, he found the truck — which had been parked in the Bacconi’s lot — sideways. He said he suspects the other driver had some sort of medical event before the crash.
“That car blasted through and spun him,” he said of the red truck. He hauled away both vehicles.
“Luckily” none of the patrons or employees were hurt, he said. “There was a line of people there waiting for ice cream.”
The patrol reported that alcohol or drugs are not a factor in the mishap, and that the investigation continues.
Also on the scene was the Trumbull County Sheriff’s Department.