The Adobe Flash Player is required to view this multimedia interactive. Get it here.

Former Middie track coach, teacher stable after crash

Police say swerving driver touched off crash that injured Bob Mucha.

Bob Mucha of Oxford, a former Middletown High School track coach and music teacher, was critically injured in a car accident Monday, March 29, in Oxford Twp.

File photo Bob Mucha of Oxford, a former Middletown High School track coach and music teacher, was critically injured in a car accident Monday, March 29, in Oxford Twp.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Lebanon updates law banning vicious dogs
New 6 min. ago
Emergency response team offers training
New 8 min. ago
4-H Club helps erect flag pole at Bentley Woods
New 10 min. ago
City honors life of Lebanon marshal
New 18 min. ago
Cincy State to offer new social media courses
New 20 min. ago
> More headlines

By Meagan Engle, Staff Writer Updated 8:49 AM Wednesday, March 31, 2010

OXFORD TWP. — Police are searching for the driver of a pickup truck who caused an accident on Ohio 73 that seriously injured a former Middletown High School track coach and music teacher Monday, March 29.

Robert Mucha, 79, of Oxford, was injured in the crash that trapped him in his car for 45 minutes. He was flown to University Hospital in Cincinnati, where he was listed in stable condition Wednesday morning.

Mucha was driving his 2009 Toyota east on Ohio 73 near Retreat Lane when he was struck by a westbound 1996 Dodge pickup driven by Laurie Picadio of Trenton, who swerved to avoid a pickup that “continued on and never stopped,” according to Oxford Twp. police Chief Michael Goins.

Picadio was treated and released from McCullough-Hyde Memorial Hospital in Oxford.

Police are trying to locate the late 1990s black Ford Ranger with “Obama” stickers on the rear window, which is tinted on the left and right and clear in the middle. “We have a couple witnesses give us statements that this truck was all over the road,” Goins said.

Mucha taught music and voice in Middletown City Schools for 27 years and coached junior high and high school track teams for nearly 20 years. Under Mucha, the Middies produced national-caliber runners and won the Division I state championship in 2002, when he was an assistant coach. The high school track complex is named in his honor.

Mucha, the choir director at Oxford United Methodist Church, previously directed the choir at First United Methodist Church in Middletown.

Share this article