By Holly Zachariah
The Columbus Dispatch
MADISON COUNTY, Ohio — The firefighter who was driving the ambulance that was involved in a fatal crash in Madison County last month has been charged with driving without a license.
The State Highway Patrol says that Todd J. Picken, 31, failed to take all the steps to get his license back following a drunken-driving conviction in July 2011. Picken has been charged in Madison County Municipal Court with no operator’s license and failure to reinstate his license.
He has pleaded not guilty and is due back in court Nov. 13.
Picken was driving an ambulance for the Jefferson Township Fire Department out of West Jefferson on Sept. 18 when an SUV driven by 53-year-old Marcia “Jody” Frederick, crossed the center line on Rt. 142 and hit the ambulance head-on. Frederick, a West Jefferson resident and Columbus police detective who had been off work because she was battling cancer, was killed.
A final crash report is not yet complete, but patrol Lt. Marty Fellure, commander of the West Jefferson post, said it appears a medical condition caused Frederick to crash and that Picken was not at fault. A routine check of his record by troopers turned up the violations.
Picken’s attorney, Richard Piatt, did not return a call seeking comment. Picken could not be reached.
When asked if he knew of Picken’s drunken driving arrest, Jefferson Township Fire Chief Bill Houk said he’d rather not answer and referred the question to Madison County Prosecutor Steve Pronai.
Pronai said he has asked that same question and hasn’t received an answer, either.
Houk did say of Picken: “We thought he was OK to drive and ... this may not turn out to be as big of a deal as it sounds.”
Licking County court records show the one-year license suspension for the July 2011 arrest had expired but, in order to get his license back after accumulating too many driving violations Picken had to, among other things, take a remedial driving course.
Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicle records indicate he took that remedial class on Sept. 23 and Oct. 11, after the crash.
Picken, who is an emergency-medical technician and firefighter certified and licensed through the State Board of Emergency Medical Services, is on leave because he was injured in the crash, Houk said. Houk acknowledged that with the drunken-driving conviction, Picken likely would not be covered by the township’s insurance.
Houk said he discovered only after the crash that the township’s insurance company was not regularly checking driving records. Now, the department is seeking its own driving records, he said.
Pronai said because Picken was not at fault in the crash, his driving record doesn’t raise the township’s liability but said it’s a problem that needs to be addressed quickly.
“I would be hard-pressed to think that anyone believes someone without a license should be driving a $200,000 medic,” Pronai said.
Picken’s driving record from the Ohio Bureau of Motor Vehicles also shows convictions for a traffic-control device in Pickerington in March; reckless operations out of Reynoldsburg in 2010 and 2008; a 90-mph speed violation in 2007 in Franklin County; and other traffic offenses dating back to 2001.
Republished with permission from the Columbus Dispatch