GEORGETOWN TWP., MI (WHTC) – An unnamed 46-year-old Holland man is in the Ottawa County Jail after a fatal three-vehicle crash along I-196 near Hudsonville around 2 PM on Saturday afternoon.
The suspect was arrested on drunken driving-related charges as a result of the incident and for other unrelated outstanding warrants.
Sheriff’s deputies say that 64-year-old Bernard Langmeyer of Deerfield had pulled his subcompact car “well off of the shoulder” of the eastbound lanes between 32nd Avenue and the M-6 junction, sitting in the vehicle unbuckled waiting for a tow truck due to a flat tire. The Holland man drifted right from behind and smashed his SUV into the disabled vehicle. A third vehicle then collided with the two other vehicles.
Langmeyer died at the scene, while his 59-year-old wife Deborah, who was buckled up in the front seat, was taken to Spectrum-Butterworth Hospital for treatment of non-life threatening injuries. A Thiensville, Wisconsin couple in their 60’s in the third vehicle, Mark and Jean Van Dyke, was taken to Metro Health, also with non-life thratening injuries. The suspect himself was not hurt, but was taken into custody and awaits arraignment on the drunken driving-related charges and for the other unrelated outstanding warrants.
The freeway was blocked off for about four hours as a result of the crash, which remains under investigation.
