Cuyahoga Falls City officials say due to water main breaks, the following roads will be closed until further
notice: Second Street, from Broad Blvd. to Sackett Ave. and Falls Ave., from Front Street to Second Street.

Summit County Sheriff's detectives are looking for a bank robber who hit a Manchester Road bank Thursday afternoon..

Shortly before 3pm., the suspect entered the PNC Bank in Coventry Township and handed the teller an envelope. The envelope contained a note which demanded cash. The suspect fled the bank on foot with an undisclosed amount of money.

Sheriff's Inspector Bill Holland says the suspect is white, standing 5' 8" tall , weighing between 165 and 190 pounds with dark hair and facial hair, and appeared to be between the ages of 40 and 50. Bank security cameras recorded good quality pictures of the robber.

Anyone with information on the robber is asked to call the Summit County Sheriff's Department.

Around midnight last night, the McDonald’s Restaurant on Romig Road, was robbed at gunpoint. The employees reported as they were closing the restaurant, they were confronted in the parking lot by five suspects armed with handguns. The robbers forced the employees back into the restaurant and demanded money. They fled with an unreported amount of cash and the victims’ cell phones.

The suspects are five black males, 18 – 22 years old.

Anyone with information is asked to contact Akron Police.

The Akron Police Department and the U.S. Marshals Office Northern Ohio Violent Fugitive Task Force is asking for assistance from the public for information that could lead to the arrest of a wanted fugitive, David R. Hyatt.

Hyatt, 27, with no permanent address, is wanted for Aggravated Robbery for the robbery of the Long John Silver’s Restaurant on Romig Road, around 5:30pm  on January 28th . Hyatt and another man entered the restaurant armed with handguns, fired shots and demanded money. Hyatt and his accomplice fled on foot with an unreported amount of cash.

David Hyatt is a light complexioned, black male, 5’08”, 130 lbs. Hyatt has a cross tattoo under his left eye. He should be considered armed and extremely dangerous.

Anyone knowing his whereabouts is encouraged to call the Akron Police Department Detective Bureau,  the U.S. Marshals Service, or Summit County Crimestoppers Callers can remain anonymous. You may also leave an anonymous tip on the Akron Police Department website

The decision by the Ohio Health Department to cancel testing mosquitoes for the West Nile virus won't stop the testing in Summit County.

Summit County Health Department Environmental Health Supervisor Terry Tuttle tells AkronNewsNow the County will fund it's own West Nile testing for the first time. " We're going to be funding it through our mosquito funds, which come from general revenue, and we'll begin testing probably in late June."

Tuttle says the county health department is funding the mosquito testing program by changing its mosquito spraying program. Up until this year widespread areas of the county were sprayed to control the mosquito population, but this year only areas where the West Nile Virus has been found, and what are considered nuisance insect areas will be sprayed.

Terry Tuttle says the county health department will no longer have to rely on sending the mosquitoes elsewhere for testing. " We will be getting the results immediately. We won't be shipping them out. We'll be testing them at our facility here at the health department."

As to why the county decided to continue the testing Tuttle says, " The reason we're going to continue to test is because the infection rate varies so much from year to year. So we like to know what the infection rates are so that we can determine where to spray."

The Ohio State Highway Patrol is investigating a collision between a Canton City fire truck and a bicycle rider early this morning at the intersection of 25th Street and Fulton Road NW.

Troopers say the crash happened just before 3 a.m. when the bicyclist going westbound on Fulton Road failed to stop for a red light and was struck by the fire truck, which went through a green light to turn northbound onto 25th Street NW.

The bicyclist suffered serious injuries and was taken to Mercy Medical Center where he underwent surgery. His condition is unknown at this time.

The State Patrol said the bicyclist was wearing dark-colored clothing and had no identification on him. Authorities have not yet identified the man.The fire truck was not responding to an emergency at the time of the crash.      

The crash remains under investigation.

The National Transportation Safety Board is proposing lowering the bar for driving under the influence of alcohol. The N-T-S-B is proposing reducing the blood alcohol content limits from point-zero-eight percent to point-zero-five.

Lieutenant Ann Ralston of the Ohio Highway Patrol tells AkronNewsNow.com only time will tell if Ohio would consider lowering its blood alcohol limit. " This is only a recommendation from the NTSB, and there's nothing pending here in the state of Ohio right now regarding limits for alcohol, drugs, or any change in the current Ohio law."  

Ralston says state troopers already have the discretion to charge someone with DUI if they act impaired, even if their blood alcohol level is under .08.

Ralston says if the state legislature approves lowering the blood alcohol content limit, " If that's what happens down the road, and that's the decision our state legislature makes, certainly as a law enforcement agency that's something we will enforce."

. She says the Patrol's primary mission is to save lives.

Driving is on the decline in Ohio and across the nation according to a new report just released by the Ohio Public Interest Research Group. Tabitha Woodruff of the group's Education Fund told reporters during a teleconference Tuesday that the driving decline started in 2005 and is definitely generational with retiring baby boomers driving less.

Woodruff says at the same time the millennial generation, those born between 1983 and 2000 are more likely to live i urban, rather than suburban areas and are more open to alternative forms of transportation such as public transit, bicycling or walking.

Woodruff says Ohio PIRG says the report should serve notice to state transportation officials that more of the transportation budget should be spent on mass transit and alternative forms of transportation .

 News Release From Ohio PIRG Education Fund

As the average number of miles driven by Americans heads into its eighth year of decline, a new report from the Ohio PIRG Education Fund finds that the slowdown in driving is likely to continue. Baby Boomers are moving out of the phase in their life when they do the most commuting, while driving-averse Millennials move into that phase. These demographic changes will likely keep driving down for decades, according to the report, “A New Direction: Our Changing Relationship with Driving and the Implications for America’s Future.”

“The Driving Boom is over,” said Tabitha Woodruff, Advocate for the Ohio PIRG Education Fund. “The constant increases we saw in driving up until 2004 show no sign of returning. As more and more Millennials become adults, and their tendency to drive less becomes the norm, the reduction in driving will be even larger.”­

Miles driven per capita peaked in 2004; the total number of miles driven by Americans peaked in 2007. The average American currently drives no more miles than at the end of President Clinton’s first term.

The Millennial generation is leading the change in transportation trends. 16 to 34-year-olds drove a whopping 23 percent fewer miles on average in 2009 than in 2001— the greatest decline in driving of any age group. In addition, Millennials are more likely to want to live in urban and walkable neighborhoods and are more open to non-driving forms of transportation than the older generation of Americans.

“A preference for urban living, combined with the increasing viability of transportation alternatives, has meant that cars are no longer the automatic choice for young people,” said Mia Young, a senior at Oberlin College in Loraine County.

The report found that under any reasonable scenario, the number of miles driven annually will be far fewer in the future than if Baby Boom trends had continued. During the second half of the twentieth century low gas prices, rapid suburbanization, and an ever-increasing number of women commuters entering the workforce fueled the Driving Boom. The factors that defined that period have since taken a back seat. Under some conservative scenarios outlined by the report, driving won’t ever regain its 2007 peak during the range of the study, which extends to 2040.

Yet, official forecasts of future vehicle travel continue to assume steady increases in driving, despite the changing trends seen over the past decade. Those forecasts are used to justify spending vast sums on new and expanded highways, even as repairs to existing roads and bridges remain neglected.

“Our transportation leaders need to wake up to the momentous changes that have taken place over the last decade,” said Woodruff. “The infrastructure we build today will mainly be used and paid for by the Millennials who are leading the trend away from driving.”

The report examines a number of high-profile official transportation forecasts and finds a consistent pattern of overestimating how much Americans will drive and only partially revising those forecasts when they prove to be incorrect. The government forecasts examined all fall above even the most conservative scenarios forecast in the report and all seem to be based on the assumption that the Driving Boom’s state of ongoing growth will last forever.­­

The change in driving trends will have huge implications for many aspects of Americans’ travel life:

Coupled with improvements in fuel efficiency, reduced driving means Americans will use about half as much gasoline and other fuels in 2040 than they use today, making the real value of gas taxes fall as much as 74 percent. Gas taxes provide the chief source of federal transportation funds and a major source for many states.

· Traffic congestion will be less of a problem.

· Toll roads will be less financially viable.

· Many highway expansion projects will start to look like wasteful boondoggles.

· Forms of travel that are expanding in use, like public transit, will be a better investment.

“Given the magnitude of these trends and the implications for the future, we need to press the reset button on our transportation policy,” said Woodruff. “Public officials can’t just stay on the only course they’ve known. They need to learn from current trends to rethink whether it’s worth building all those extra highway miles that were planned based on an obsolete understanding of future driving trends.”


 

A 29-year old Akron man is facing several charges after allegedly firing shots at a car.

Tavarasa Smith, of Brittain Road, was charged with Weapons under Disability, Vandalism, Aggravated Menacing and Discharging a Firearm. Officers heard shots fired near the area of Bittman and Maple Streets. The incident occurred on Crestwood Avenue. Police reports indicate Tavarasa called the owner of the vehicle and threatened his life and implicated himself in the earlier shots fired.

An Akron father is facing numerous charges from police after his car, with a child in the back seat, hit a tree while being chased by Akron officers over the weekend.

Jermaine Cody Sr., 28, of Leo Street, was charged with Willful Flee, Resisting Arrest, Child Endangering, Driving under the Influence and Obstructing Official Business. Officers were on Copley Road when they observed a vehicle hit a tree at Copley and Mercer. Cody was driving the car and fled the scene when he observed the officers. He ran several red lights and went the wrong way on a one way street and also hit another vehicle before another police car stopped Jermaine to end the chase.

The child was taken to Children's Hospital.

Officers say Cody admitted to drinking alcohol and smoking marijuana before driving.