NEW PHILADELPHIA (WJER) - The city police department says two motorcyclists are still hospitalized with very serious injuries following a crash on South Broadway Tuesday evening. 

Police say a southbound SUV went left of center, side-swiped one motorcycle, and hit a second one head-on. Captain Ty Norris says it appears the driver of the SUV was at fault in the crash, and impairment seems to be a factor.

“We had the roadway shut down for roughly two and a half hours. We had a reconstructionist from the Ohio State Highway Patrol on scene to reconstruct the accident. I would anticipate getting is report probably within a week,” he says.

Norris says it will take a while to complete the investigation. He says they executed a search warrant to obtain the SUV’s data recording device.

“And then we have the testing for the possible impairment needs to be sent to the lab to be tested so that we can determine the level of impairment for the driver of this care. I would anticipate not having all of those results back and not really knowing which way this thing is heading for at least a month,” he says.

Norris says the hospital did not update the status of the motorcyclists, but he described their condition as very serious. He says they were not wearing helmets.

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