The community is mourning the first Warren County traffic fatality of 2022 after a 28-year-old female was killed in a Saturday night crash on Smithville Highway. According to Josh Sparkman of the Highway Patrol, Morrison resident Brittany Goralski was traveling inbound on Smithville Highway, State Route 56, toward McMinnville when she veered to the left in front of Boyd & Boyd Nursery and left the roadway.

“I have no idea,” said Sparkman, when asked why Goralski lost control of the vehicle. “That is a straight stretch of road.”

After leaving the highway, the vehicle struck a driveway culvert head on. Sparkman says the vehicle flipped an undetermined number of times and came to rest in the grass on its passenger side. Goralski was ejected. She was not wearing a seatbelt and the 1994 Geo was not equipped with airbags.

“I’m not sure if wearing a seatbelt would have helped with the damage to the vehicle and with it rolling so many times. It’s a very small vehicle,” said Sparkman. “That vehicle doesn’t have any air bags in it. They didn’t start putting them in that model until 1996.”

Guesswork, said Sparkman, would be the only way to determine how many times the vehicle flipped. The fatal accident occurred Saturday at 7960 Smithville Highway at 7:13 p.m.

Warren County had four traffic fatalities in 2021.