ZEELAND TWP., MI (WHTC) – Sometimes when you think you’ve heard them all as a responding police officer, somebody comes up with a new excuse.
Ottawa County Sheriff’s Sergeant Kevin Allman has seen a few crashes during his time, but one on Monday afternoon was out of the ordinary. It was a three-vehicle pileup on eastbound Business 196, just off of the exit ramp from I-196, when 66-year-old Gary Van Haitsma slammed into the rear of the vehicle that had stopped because the vehicle ahead of it, driven by 49-year-old Lisa Santos of Holland, had stopped at 84th Avenue. When Santos was asked why she stopped when the traffic signal was flashing yellow at the time, she couldn’t say why, but added that, “sometimes I stop at the light, sometimes I do not.”
Van Haitsma complained of a minor chest pain and was taken to Holland Hospital for treatment, while Santos and the other driver involved, 33-year-old Ryan Vandermolen of Zeeland, wasn’t hurt. The crash remains under investigation.
