May 11, 2024, Press Release from the Ohio Department of Transportation: LIMA, Ohio - (Saturday, May 11, 2024) The Ohio Department of Transportation (ODOT), Defiance County Economic Development, and Paulding County Economic Development, Inc. invite the public to attend a ceremony to officially open the reconstructed bridge on U.S. 127 over the Maumee River in Defiance County. The event will be held Friday, May 17, at 10 a.m. on the bridge, located south of the village of Sherwood in Defiance County, and just north of the Paulding County line. The ceremony will take place toward the south end of the bridge. Participants may park on the closed portions of U.S. 127, north and south of the bridge (see map below). The bridge will open to traffic later in the day following the ceremony.

The Van Wert post of the Ohio State Patrol says it happened just before noon at the intersection of U.S. 127 and County Road 176 north of Paulding. A semi got tangled up in phone lines that were hanging low from a previous crash. A passerby, 54-year-old Vance Campbell, of Wauseon stopped to help remove the lines from the semi. At that point, another truck hit the phone lines, which in turn struck Campbell, causing fatal injuries. Trooper says the incident remains under investigation.