HOLLAND (WHTC) — Allegan County Sheriff’s deputies have arrested a man in connection with a traffic fatality early Saturday morning, according to a statement released to the media by Capt. Chris Kuhn on Saturday afternoon.
Kuhn’s statement indicated the incident started in the early morning hours of May 14, 2016, when a Gun Lake Tribal Police Dept. officer, then enroute to the Allegan County Jail with an arrestee, saw a vehicle pass him on southbound US-131 “at a high rate of speed, nearly sideswiping him,” Kuhn’s statement read.
The Gun Lake officer alerted Allegan County dispatchers, who in turn alerted deputies to the reckless driver.
An Allegan County Sheriff’s deputy near the highway’s Wayland exit saw the suspect vehicle take the ramp and head east on 135th Avenue. The deputy attempted to stop the vehicle but the driver accelerated to a high speed and continued east, according to Kuhn’s statement.
The deputy lost sight of the suspect vehicle but continued east on 135th, finding what appeared to be the suspect’s vehicle rolled over in 135th Avenue’s ditch, near Wayland Township’s Fourth Street.
The driver of the vehicle was trapped inside but, according to the officer on the scene, belligerent and uncooperative with police.
Allegan Central Dispatch alerted officers that a victim of a crash with the suspect’s vehicle had called 911 for help.
The second vehicle was located by an Allegan County Sheriff’s deputy and a Wayland Police Dept. officer, who found it rolled over into a dense cluster of trees.
That vehicle’s three passengers included one who had been ejected during the crash and was found dead at the scene. The remaining two passengers were extricated and rushed by ambulance to Spectrum Health Butterworth. Kuhn noted one is in critical condition and one is in serious condition.
The suspect in the first vehicle “was determined to be intoxicated and was treated and released from Allegan General Hospital,” according to Kuhn’s statement.
That man is now in Allegan County jail awaiting arraignment on formal charges. Until that time, his name is being withheld by police.
The names of the three occupants of the second vehicle are being withheld pending notification of family members. Kuhn noted that everyone except the person who died had been wearing seatbelts.
The person who died, Kuhn wrote, “was a rear seat passenger in the struck vehicle.”
The crash remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office was assisted by the Gun Lake Tribal Police, the Michigan State Police, the Wayland Police Dept., the Wayland Fire Dept., and Wayland Area Ambulance.
