CRASH AFTERMATH

Is this man a father? I understand there are pay cuts, but as a human being and as a father, didnt this man feel anything for these parents that would have to wait 2 days to identify their own children? Then to watch him on the news, so cold. He apologizes for their loss, but also expresses that now he wishes he would have gone because this has caused him so much aggrevation. What about the aggrevation and hurt of the families? Knowing that your child is dead, you need that closure, and they had to wait 2 days for it. This man makes $59,000 to work PART TIME. This was definately something the he should have done b/c he is a caring human being, not because it his job! I've seen the city of campbell in the news a lot lately b/c of the city council's opposition against their new mayor. I think it is time for the residents of Campbell to take back their city by voting in new council members, and it is also time for the City of Campbell to lead the way in voting to remove this man from office. Residents of Campbell, let your voices be heard!

The corronor said: “I am on call, and I handled it the best way I could,”
Ok, well doesn't "salary: and "on call" mean that you go when there is work to do?

He offers to take a 10% pay cut, how bout if we just fire his ass for not going to work and not doing his job!

I'm very glad the volunteer firefighters in some communities don't have the same work ethic, they go anytime day or night, safe lives, respond to car crashes, medical emergenies...etc and they do it all for free!

Someone needs to put the coronor and Mayor Krinkos from Campbell on a boat and send them far, far away!

THis man is full of horse crap. He layed off 1 person and his budget was cut by 30 - 37K. That is a salary. Please Mr. Kennedy our city may be in fiscal emergency but stupid and ignorant we are not. Let it have been one of your children and see how you would have your office react. Better yet let it have been my family and I would assure you that you would be $59K a year lighter.

I don't even know where to begin...

I don't think that anything was done wrong to have such an outcry. I'm so sorry for the families, but I think the anger that being directed at Dr. Kennedy is not necessary.
He released a statement a month ago saying his office would not respond to traffic accidents over the weekend, the next business day there was no anger or public outcry then but there is now.
Let's think about this logically.. this happened Sat around 5 am right.. so it was a little over 48 hours the family waited. I'm sure like I said that there were emergency personnel on scene who more than likely identified the victims, ran the plate on the car, there was one survivor who I am sure where in contact with the other parents.
I'm sure the grieving process was already started.. shock, grief, tears. I'm sure the farthest thing from these families mind's were autoposys. The bodies were removed and placed at the morgue.
I'm sorry for the families, but there seems to be a public outcry over not much here. A mountain out of a mole hole..
The residents of Mahoning County can not have their cake and eat it too, either you want services or you don't. Choose your poison wisely when casting your vote for the sales tax in May.

I guess death isn't an issue unless it occurs between the hours of 9-5, Monday through Friday.

I have been ranting for months now that ALL incumbent elected officials need to be voted out. ALL of them. This just makes it more vivid....

VOTE, and vote all incumbents OUT!

"Dr. Kennedy said he believed the police had the identification information they needed during the weekend.

Under state law, the coroner’s job is to determine the cause and manner of death, he said.

Many coroner’s offices' employees do not go to death scenes at all, he said."

There's little to examine as far as cause of death. Sufficient evidence was available to ID the deceased. It would be reasonable to expect the Campbell Police Department to make conclusive identification of the deceased. The coroner's office had previously announced that investigators would no longer be sent to death scenes on weekends.

Please use some common sense and calm down.

BTaylor do you have children? You state the parents had to wait a little over 48 hours to see their children, but I'm sure if this was you and your family that would not be acceptable! Yes the bodies we ID'd by the CPD and the families were notified, but you cannot tell me that as a parent you would not want to see your child!

I agree with Dr. Kennedy in his reasoning about not sending investigators to auto crashes as the cause of death is usually apparent. Under Ohio Revised Code, it is certainly not necessary. The police typically have sufficient information to ID the victims.

However, that being said, I think it is rather cold and callous for Dr. Kennedy to take such a strident position about his office. Once someone passes away, everything we do in this life, with the exception of prayer for the soul of the departed, is for the benefit of the living. I would think the coroner would have some feelings for the families of the dead and allow them to see their loved ones so that the process of grieving and healing can begin. He should remember that the surviving family is usually made up of registered voters. Public officials are elected with the expectation of serving the public. While I don't believe that $59K is exhorbitant for a medical doctor even in a part-time position, he knew this when he ran for office and took his oath. The coroner should recognize that he is the most powerful elected official in county government. His attitude is very callous and cold. I would hope he would reconsider his actions and have some sympathy for the families.

You people can sit here and spit out Revised Codes and laws at me all you want, the bottom line is he had a choice. He is "on-call". This is not the story of a 90 year old man who died in his warm bed. This is about having a heart. Yes the kids were id'd, but you cannot tell me that as a parent you would not want to see you children! So what you are saying is there is a right time to die, and that is during the week from 9-5? This is about giving a mother, father, grandparent, brother, sister closure. I'm not from Campbell, but i do know that one thing about that town is they come together as a community when need be. I hope and pray the people of Campbell come together now and voice their opinions so that this will never happen to another family again. And i pray for you people who think Mr. kennedy did no wrong, that you dont have to experience this, b/c I'm sure it would be a totally different reaction from you!!

"Yes the kids were id'd, but you cannot tell me that as a parent you would not want to see you children! "
"but you cannot tell me that as a parent you would not want to see your child! "

As a parent and think your children were involved in the accident you can go down to the morgue to ID them.

So if Dr.Kennedy went to the scene they would have had closure?

To BTtaylor, you are ignorant and heartless. The survivor in the hospital still has not regained consciouness due to the amount of injuries he susained. So no, he wasn't able to do the job the "on call" coronor should have done. He is salaried which means he should go and perform his duties. He announced layoffs and cutbacks but that hasn't been put in place. His job is to serve the county and its people, not make new rules to serve his own personal agenda and forget to serve the community as he was elected to serve.

Lifes2Short...these parents couldnt see their children for 2 days. Yes, to be that is closure. As a parent, you can tell my child is gone, but my head and heart would still be holding on that maybe its not true, maybe it wasn't my child. Yes they were ID'd, but they could not see them. If he is "on-call", this was a call he should have taken!

I still believe all of this "outrage" is pointless, and just typical of the uninformed, bitter masses of this county who would rather see everyone and everything fail due to their own anger (read: sales tax) rather than take the necessary steps to save the vital services we need (read: have fun fending off the thugs when there is no jail and hardly any police).
However, while I do not think it was necessary at all for the coroner to go to the scene, if the actual parents are trying to see the children and they reasonably believed that their children were involved, they needed to have someone there. You can't just make someone wait 48 hours if they think their family member was involved. That is the equivalent of torture.

igotsomethintosay

"If he is "on-call", this was a call he should have taken!"

What part don't you understand??

On April 19, Dr. Kennedy announced he would no longer send investigators to death scenes because his 2010 budget had been cut by the county commissioners. Coroners’ investigations would begin the next business day, he said.
Under state law, the coroner’s job is to determine the cause and manner of death, he said.
Many coroner’s offices employees do not go to death scenes at all, he said.
Although he didn’t go to any death scenes over the weekend, Dr. Kennedy said he responded during that time to about 30 telephone calls from emergency dispatchers concerning 10 potential or actual coroner’s cases, including that of someone shot last week,who died over the weekend.

"actual coroner’s cases, including that of someone shot last week,who died over the weekend."

Wheres the outrage over the individual that died this weekend from a shotgun last week?

I must say, as a family member of someone who died in a tragic car accident long ago, it is not that you want to "see" them, certainly not in the condition they would have been in, but what you want is confirmation of their identity from the official office of the coroner. Since it seems that CPD was not able to do this w/o that official word. Dr. Kennedy is a part time coroner making 63K a year in an economy and community that is suffering. He should be glad to even have a job! He should not have made such a poor decision.
What really angers me is this: WHO PAYS THE BODY REMOVAL TEAM to go to the scene?

I'm sorry, but why should the Coroner even need to express any sympathy?

Should he be expressing sympathy when a drug dealer gets killed, as well? Going 80-90 in a residential area is like shooting indiscriminately into a park. They easily could have killed an entire family by their irresponsibility.

It's a tragic loss of life here, but none of these kids or their families merit any outpouring of sympathy by county officials.

Everyone wants services and nobody wants taxes. Reducing the hours worked reduces the budget this office controls. If he gos to the accident scene, he gets paid. Nobody has the right to ask him to work for free. If there is a doctor out there who will do this for free, let him or her run in the next election.

@300, so you are comparing these kids that died to drug dealers? why b/c they are black or because they are from Campbell? Why were they going 80? Who knows! Why did any of us do the things we did when we were kids!? Because you think your invincible! You need to get off your high horse!

Yes, I am. What they did was so irresponsible that it compares to selling drugs in my opinion. And, for the record I had no idea what race they were (I never watch the local news, and there was no mention in the article).

I've driven 80 before, but only on the interstate, not at 6AM on a residential street.

Typical Mahoning County to think that going 90 on a side street is something that all youngsters have done. There's no need for me to get off my high horse because only a worthless person would be driving like that. You can rationalize that it's nothing that all the rest of us did when we were young, but you're completely off-base. Kids getting caught with a joint is a youthful indiscretion, plowing into a house going 90 is criminal.

As for the public policy of it, the Coroner's right on target. He warned what would happen with cutbacks, and he followed through regardless of other people trying to make an emotional plea.

Just say NO to the 1/2% sales tax levy and maybe the county officials will get the message that they work for us, the citizens of Mahoning County. I can't stand the officals like Dr. Kennedy who are thumbing their noses at us.

God bless the families.

In the news:

Mahoning County, OH: “I am on call, and I handled it the best way I could,” he said. (Dr. Kennedy)

"Yazoo County, Mississippi: "Coroner Ricky Shivers was in his truck when the winds flipped the vehicle. He went to a hospital to have bruised ribs and cuts treated, then went out to help identify bodies in his hospital gown. "

Some parents! What the hell were their kids doing out at 5:00 in the morning? Yeah, like they really give a sh_ _! Then when something like this happens they start to care and then they got the gaul to tell the media that their son/daughter was a good boy/girl. Bullsh_ _!

Wow, some of you are heartless. Really shouldn't be an issue if the kids were black or from Campbell. Black folks grieve just like white folks.
And the fact that they were doing something stupid and extremely risky by speeding? Who hasn't done stupid things? Doesn't make their deaths any less painful for their families.
Issue should be why didn't Kennedy respond? He was fully funded when event happened.
He is not appointed, he is elected every four years. He usually runs unopposed.

Dear Dr. Kennedy.... don't expect to be elected back into office this time. Even if no one runs against you. I will write in a name.

County Commissioners.....shame on you for allowing this man to set such 'rules'.

Peace be with the families.

I feel for the families, it must be terrible trying to reconcile what transpired. But, this has nothing to do with the Coroner, or all these people questioning his humanity. 2 of the 3 were adults, and thus their family (from the Coroner's perspective) are merely next-of-kin. Also, I'm sure each of them had a cell phone, so the argument that the families had to wait 2 days to figure out if their child had died is absurd.

The mentality around here is astonishing. Someone flat-out tells the public what will happen due to budget cuts, nobody paid any attention, then like a bunch of idiots they complain. Now, though it's off-topic from the article, people are trying to say that we've all made mistakes when young, so it's wrong to point out the sheer stupidity of the driver. Some of you must have been real pieces of work if this ranks up there with some of the stupid things you'd done in the past. This wasn't a young driver going a bit over the speed limit, this was a man who was using no common sense and paid the price for it. Just like those Mooney/Ursuline kids in Millcreek a few years ago.

Choices have repercussions, and I just don't see why everyone is so understanding of such flagrantly dangerous behavior.

It has nothing to do with race. In fact, I assumed that they were white since the Vindicator wasn't painting them as hoodlums, and the message boards weren't cluttered with Unionforever/USA1/and Stan bitching about the "subculture".

I have to stick up for Dr Kennedy. I remember when he was 1st elected & took hardly nothing in pay until things got straigtened around. I do not imagine it is an easy job in Mahoning County being coroner. He is a very caring man & you should not criticize him if you do not know him. Think about this too . He has run every time with no one against him. They are not exactly beating down the doors for this job SO you can vote him out but what you will get is the bodies sent out of the county for autopsies. That will cost a lot more than someone who is doing the best he can with what he has. He will have my vote everytime he runs. I trust him completely.

@ Lifes2short,
Take a good look around the Mahoning valley, you are one of the reasons it looks the way it does. Everyone in local government are only out for themselves and screw the people. This has nothing to do with 1/2 cent sales tax...it has everything to do with laziness and trying to prove a point. As long as you condone public elected officials acting like this it is not going to get any better.

Get a grip Life, if it were one of your family members in that car you would be on the highest mount calling for Dr. Kennedy's head.

My condolences to all families and friends involved.

He does not do accidents or autopsies. Why do we need him? Can't a secretary make a phone call to the "body recovery team". 63 K for a man who has no set amount of hours he must work. This is exactly what is wrong with the Mahoning County.

Why should Dr. Kennedy want to continue in this job? If I were him, based on the flak he is receiving for a pretty open and shut case..."The coroner ruled Monday the deaths were caused by a motor-vehicle accident."

The man is entitled to a private life. Government service does not mean servitude.

Owlguin (11 comments) posted 2 hours, 55 minutes ago

"Everyone wants services and nobody wants taxes. Reducing the hours worked reduces the budget this office controls. If he gos to the accident scene, he gets paid. Nobody has the right to ask him to work for free. If there is a doctor out there who will do this for free, let him or her run in the next election."

Owlguin, He is paid a salary to be on call. He gets no overtime, that is what his salary is for. Work for free? $63,000.00 for a ten hour work week is not working for free.( I seriously doubt he even works 5 hours a week for the county.) All he had to do was open the morgue so the family could see their children.

Until all these county officials are out of office I will never vote for any new or continuation of taxes.

VOTE NO 1/2% sales tax!!!!!

WOW!

Almost $65,000.00 per year for 15-20 hours per week???

AND he DOESN'T do autopsies?? What DOES he do?

To Mom509 who said
"He is a very caring man & you should not criticize him if you do not know him. "

If one of your kids were suspected dead and a "body removal service" put them in a cold morgue and locked the doors and told you "sorry we can't afford to let you in to verify the identity of your child till monday" then you may see how "caring" this man is. I don't have to "know" him to know what a crappy job he is doing. He should have been there or had one of his employees there so these families could confirm their childs identity, answer some questions and allow for them to begin final arrangements. No excuse!

As a patient of Dr Kennedys' for well over 15 years I can tell you he is both compassionate and professional.He does his job with dedication and devotion.I believe hes being made a scapegoat here and its not right.Whether elected official or not you can only do what your budget allows.Is he supposed to be on call 24/7/365?Yes its a tragedy what happened but lets not lay blame where its not due.

DJONES, yes, he is supposed to be on call 24/7/365, thus the $65,000.00 we pay him. He used these grieving families as pawns in his political game. Shame on him. You may be a patient of his but he is an employee of mine and he was derelict in his duty. He should be removed immediately.

65000.00 per year entitles you to that kind of coverage Jason?Thats a big reason why he runs unopposed every election,thats not enough money for anyone who has a medical degree.Its called public service and in my opinion its ludicrous to think 2 employees can be on call that amount of time.If the job is full time it should be paid full time.Especially with the financial commitment doctors undertake to earn their degrees in the first place.Hes doing a service at that pay thats not a whole lotta money.

DJONES,
Dr. Kennedy knew what he was getting into before he ran for coroner. Its not like the area's reputation crept up on him and caught him by surprise. If he didn't like the pay or the circumstances of the job, why did he run?

DJONES, That is what the job pays. That has not changed with or without the additional 1/2%. You are correct that doctors make a significant financial commitment to obtain their degree. Dr kennedy has a full time practice, does he not? If he does not want to serve the public as he was sworn to do when elected than he needs to move on. Plain and simple.

VOTE NO 1/2% sales tax

300 your quote "Also, I'm sure each of them had a cell phone, so the argument that the families had to wait 2 days to figure out if their child had died is absurd."

HUH? how does that phone call go. Ring Ring-hello mom, yea I'm dead.

You are an idiot.

300,
I absolutely cannot believe how horribly insensitive you are. You are almost as ignorant as Dr Kennedy is. How dare you call these kids worthless because they were going 80-90mph on a city street?! I dont think that the speed that you drive in your car speaks to your worth on this earth, if that was the case, your ignorant, insensitive comments make you just as worthless and I think that you too should go drive yourself into a house and die. Or better yet, one of your loved ones should while you wait 48 hrs to be able to properly identify their body and begin to properly grieve.
Dr Kennedy only did this as a means of teaching the city a lesson due to his budget cuts. well that was a horrible, cruel , inhumane way of doing it. Theses people stated that they were praying that maybe it wasn't their loved one, but he wouldn't help to give them that closure. How cruel of a human being can you be. Everything does not have to be about money, sometimes you should do things out of the goodness of your heart and this just showed that he is indeed an evil individual, with a cold heart. I'm a RN and he is a physician. When you take care of someone, you take care of that whole family. He took the Hippocratic oath. What happened to "first do no harm"? He made those families suffer.

I'm an officer in the Dayton area and I can tell you that I've never seen a coroner come to the scene of a fatal traffic accident for the purpose of identifying victims. However, I can't imagine one of our coroners not bothering to respond to the morgue to atleast offer their assistance when an accident like this occurs.

This was a disgusting political move and grossly unprofessional on the part of the coroner. Although in my opinion, this represents the negligents of county leadership for permitting an employee to take 60k a year for 15 hours of work per week when the coroner doesn't even have the sense to respond to an event like this. It's just unfortunate that it took the death's of three teenagers to bring this issue to light which also makes a person wonder which other county positions go unmonitored by the commissioners.

I cannot believe that ANYONE would defend Dr. Kennedy for not allowing the families of those poor dead children immediate access to identify them--there is always the hope that perhaps a mistake has been made and to have to wait 48 hours is an incomprehensible agony. $63,000 for part time work which he considers to be 15 or 20 hours a week? And he does not make hospital visits on his private practice patients on weekends? Is this man a physician or a plumber? No, I take that back, a plumber would come out on a weekend to take care of an emergency problem. No wonder people are fed up with physicians who seem to care more for money than for their patients or, in this case, the job that he has been elected to do. He says that he took all of those telephone calls, but surely assisting grief stricken parents should be a top priority. Shame on you , Doctor!!!!

"This was a disgusting political move and grossly unprofessional on the part of the coroner." PERIOD. He is making more than most people make per year on a PART TIME job and can't be bothered to give up a couple hours of his time to help these kids families? He simply can't defend that.

formery

"Take a good look around the Mahoning valley, you are one of the reasons it looks the way it does."

Humor me and explain that comment?

"Everyone in local government are only out for themselves and screw the people. This has nothing to do with 1/2 cent sales tax...it has everything to do with laziness and trying to prove a point. As long as you condone public elected officials acting like this it is not going to get any better."

Did I say anything about the 1/2 cent sales tax? Uh, No I didn't. I use to work for Mahoning County at CSEA and I kind of know what goes on in the government sector. So tell me why is Dr. Kennedy getting thrown under the bus when he came out and told the public what was going to happen? No one cared or else they would've had a special meeting and have the commissioners do something about it. Did they? Uh, No, they didn't. They ignored it. If he didn't come out and say anything and this happened then he's 100% wrong but it takes something like this to get everyone in a uproar. From complaining about what he makes to his not doing his job. Laziness to make a point? Like he knew this was going to happen. Do you think hes psychic or something? Do you really believe he wanted something like this to happen to prove a point?
He took over 30 calls on the weekend and had 10 potential OR actual coroner’s cases and there is NO UPROAR about them. Why is that? Why is all the complaining on this ONE case out of 10? What about last weekend?
You people need to get a grip on reality.

“The most important person in our office is not me, not the investigators, not the secretary; it is the patient [and surviving family members] because that is who we are here to serve. The minute you forget that, you might as well do something else,” Dr. Germaniuk said.

Mr kennedy, you need to go!

If these families cared about the kids so much they wouldn't have been out at 5 in the morning.

And you people that rant and rave about taxes and then want the same level of service. Nothing is free.

Bring on the whining.

Wow, there are a bunch of insensitive rants going on here!!!
Dr. Kennedy should have had enough respect for these families to open the morgue and let these families identify their loved ones asap.
We don't know the all the facts about this accident so let's not make rude comments and assumptions. The only one that can answer the questions, is the young man that is lying in the hospital fighting for his life. Our community lost 3 young people So keep your rude comments to yourself and don't assume you know something when you don't. Thoughts and Prayers to these families

all you people saying bad stuff hide behind a computer talking about these kids you are the worst kind of human probably hate your life

I find it surprising that you all believe this is a political move on the part of the coroner. He made an announcement on April 15, I believe, stating that this is what was going to happen. Nothing was done about it until now, and I don't believe for a minute that any of you, Dr. Kennedy or any of the commissioners believed that death would somehow fall in line. It is what needed to be done and it is what was announced would be done. I am not saying that makes it easier on the parents, but it's a fact that you all seem to think is negligible.

Also, for those of you alleging he was trying to make a political point to the "city", I urge you to check you facts when you are blasting the MAHONING COUNTY Coroner. City government is a different government than county government.

To answer your question igotsomethintosay ~ Did I actually give birth to a child No, do I have children Yes. As a child care giver I do agree it is probably one of the hardest things that a parent can go through. My neice died at the age of 6 years back and my brother (who was at work at the time) did not see his daughter until she was brought to the funeral home, and now that I look back I'm grateful he was able to say goodbye when that little angel was laid out in a beautiful casket surronded by rose petals.
Reader ~ I never will resort to name calling and I expect the same respect from you if you wish to address me. We can differ on views but it takes it to a very intolerable level with names are thrown out. I was referring to when I said survivor that perhaps the family that was at the hospital with this young lady could inform the other family members, of course she must be traumatized so I wouldn't expect her to actually make the phone class herself.
I can assure you that I am neither ignorant or heartless.

i think its rediculous that this tragic accident has turned into an issue with the coroners office. There has been several people who lost three loved ones and if yes i dont agree with how he came about this situation but if this a problem fight about it but not over these kids accident

WOW, this is a touchy subject and ppl should learn to be respectful and not make assumptions. Ppl are saying that it was irresponsible that they were going 90 mph. Now i dont know how true it is but i heard someone was chasing them who wanted to do bodily harm and left the scene once they crashed. Ppl are asking why they were out at 5am, but lets remember that the majority was 18 and over. Did they even live with their parents? It does seem like Kennedy is being the scapegoat. Now im sure he didnt wish for this tragedy to prove a point, but out of the goodness of my heart I would of let the parents view the bodies AFTER i learned how bad they couldnt wait! But who would want to view them in the condition that they were in? Lets just all keep Mel'quan Patton in our prayers..