"I don't know why he decided to leave." - said the brother of the drunk driver
9-1-1 audio [3.8 mb] at ToledoBlade.com.
Drunk driver kills four children and one adult and injures two more children and another adult. Police Sgt. Richard Murphy said the crash was the worst he could remember during his 41 years as an officer. The victims were on their way to Maryland after a holiday visit in Michigan.
The drunk driver was driving northbound on southbound I-280. The mostly head-on collision occurred near the ramp from southbound I-75 to southbound I-280 near the Manhattan Boulevard overpass. The drunk driver entered I-280 from Navarre Ave in Oregon.
The drunk driver's blood-alcohol level was 0.254 percent. The legal limit is 0.08 percent.
The drunk driver was partying with family at a local hotel where they had rented a room. Some reports say it was the Rodeo Bar [ map ]. He was not suppose to be driving, but he abruptly left the party without telling anyone, and he took off with his brother's pickup truck.
The brother at the hotel got concerned and called the drunk driver's cell phone. The drunk-driving brother said, "Sorry, bro." Their sister, who is pregnant, was supposed to drive them home.
After leaving the party, the drunk driver stopped at Taco Bell on Navarre Ave. Employees of the restaurant where the drunkard had purchased food called police to report the driver's condition.
Only six minutes elapsed between the first 9-1-1 call by the Taco Bell worker and the accident. The Taco Bell workers had the drunk driver stopped in the drive-through, but he got away before the police arrived.
The call from Taco Bell came at 10:45 p.m. and recordings of police dispatch activity showed Oregon police responded immediately. Four minutes later, the drunk driver eluded police.
Two more 9-1-1 calls by motorists on I-280 described the drunk driver's wrong-way path. The Oregon dispatcher alerted Toledo police. Toledo police confirmed they had received numerous frantic calls about a pickup truck driving the wrong way on the freeway.
Police estimate the drunk driver drove at least 3 miles in the wrong direction before hitting the other vehicle.
After the fatal accident, a motorist on the scene noticed the drunk driver walking around and complaining about jaw pain.
The drunk driver was combative at times and refused to submit a blood sample. Police got a search warrant to obtain the sample.
The drunk driver was under guard at the hospital. He will likely be released later in the day on Dec 31, and then he will be arrested and charged with five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide. The charge is a second-degree felony. Minimum penalty is two years in prison. Maximum penalty is eight years.
Dec 31, 2007 local media stories :
WNWO story
Excerpts from the NBC 24 WNWO story :
They identified the [drunk] driver of the pick-up as 24-year-old Michael Gagnon, of Adrian, Michigan.
Investigators said the victims were among eight family members traveling in a minivan. Killed were 36-year-old Bethany Griffin, 10-year-old Jordan Griffin, 10-year-old Haley Burkman, 7-year-old Lacie Burkman, and 6-month-old Vadi Griffin. Injured in the crash were 36-year-old Danny Griffin, 8-year-old Sidney Griffin, and 8-year-old Beu Burkman. All were from Parkville, Maryland.
Toledo police are still conducting their investigation but say the accident happened around 10:55 p.m. when Gagnon was allegedly driving a large F-350 Ford pick-up traveling in the wrong direction on I-280 going northbound in the southbound lanes. He struck the Chevy Astro van nearly head-on, sheering the right side off. Witnesses described the accident scene saying there were Christmas presents, an infant car seat, and debris all over the expressway.
Police have been able to piece together a series of events leading up to the fatal crash. Investigators say Gagnon allegedly left a bar in Oregon, Ohio. He stopped at a Taco Bell on Navarre Avenue where employees at the drive-thru said he was noticeably intoxicated. They called 9-1-1, but Gagnon left before police arrived. Gagnon started his deadly trek on I-280 at Navarre Avenue, going northbound in the southbound lanes.
Meanwhile Danny Griffin was driving his family home to Maryland after visiting family in Michigan for the holidays. He was on the ramp from southbound I-75 to southbound I-280 when the two vehicles collided.
Police said that both drivers tried to avoid one another, but struck nearly head-on. The force of the crash sheared off the right side of the minivan and ejecting several passengers. Four of the victims died at the scene and 6-month-old Vadi Griffin, who was secured in a child seat, died at St. Vincent’s Mercy Medical Center.
Police said that Gagnon smelled of alcohol at the scene and was taken to St. Vincent’s Mercy Medical Center. Sgt. Jeff Pachell, one of the Toledo police investigators said that Gagnon was combative at times and refused to submit a blood sample. He said that Toledo Municipal Court Judge Timothy Kuhlman had to sign the search warrant to obtain the sample. Police say Gagnon was admitted to the St. Vincent I-C-U and will be charged once he is released. Charges of aggravated vehicular homicide are pending.
Meanwhile Danny Griffin and Beu Burkman are in stable condition. Sidney Griffin is in critical condition.
The 9-1-1 calls
Shelly Hymore of Toledo had just left the American Legion Post and was heading with two friends to grab a late meal on Woodville Road in Northwood. She was in her car with her friends traveling on I-280 southbound near Starr Avenue, when Gagnon’s truck went speeding by her in the wrong direction. “I was driving and saw the headlights. I thought the truck was in the northbound lanes, then realized he was heading for me. He went by me at a high-rate of speed. I immediately called 9-1-1,” she said.
That wasn’t the first call that Gagnon was apparently driving drunk in the area. At 10:46 p.m. employees at the Taco Bell on Navarre Avenue in Oregon, Ohio notified police after describing an intoxicated driver who stopped at their drive-thru. “They said the man smelled of alcohol and had obvious slurred speed,” said Ted Moore, Oregon police officer who responded to the call. “When I arrived, he had already left.”
Officer Moore actually spotted a black truck heading westbound on Navarre as he responded to the call at the Taco Bell. But the truck had a ladder attachment to it, and that was not mentioned during the 9-1-1 call --- Plus the initial 9-1-1 call came in as a man passed out at the Taco Bell. So Officer Moore continued towards the Taco Bell. “That was probably his truck that I spotted on Navarre, but by the time I got to the Taco Bell, and investigated, he already had too much time on me,” Moore said.
Officer Moore said that the logical assumption is Gagnon allegedly started his deadly trip on I-280 at Navarre Avenue, going north in the southbound lanes. Almost immediately 9-1-1 calls started coming in. “We had a call of a wrong way driver shortly after he left the Taco Bell. That call came from someone who spotted him between Starr Avenue and Navarre Avenue,. That call got transferred to Oregon because the caller said they were near Navarre Avenue,” said Moore.
Detroit News story
Excerpts from the Detroit News story :
In an interview with the Baltimore Sun, Michael Gagnon's brother, Samuel, said he, his brother and a number of cousins were partying at a hotel near Toledo where they had rented a room. Samuel Gagnon said his brother -- who wasn't supposed to be driving -- abruptly left the party without telling anyone.
"I don't know why he decided to leave," Samuel Gagnon, 21, said by telephone. "Everyone's in shock. We're supposed to be celebrating the New Year, but now I got to look forward to my brother in jail the rest of his life."
Their sister, who is pregnant, was supposed to drive them home, but Gagnon said he discovered that his brother had abruptly left and had taken his pickup truck, which they use for their construction business in Adrian. Worried, Gagnon said he called his brother's cell phone.
He said his brother answered the phone and simply said: "Sorry, bro." Later, an official from the Toledo Fire Department got on the phone and told Samuel Gagnon that his brother had been in an accident. According to Gagnon, he and his brother were planning to travel to Iowa within a few days to start work in the construction. Gagnon said he and other family members were turned away when they tried to visit their brother in the hospital.
Police Sgt. Richard Murphy said the crash was the worst he could remember during his 41 years as an officer. "I can't recall having five at one time, ever," said Murphy, who reported that Gagnon was under guard at the hospital. Murphy said Gagnon will likely be released later today and then will be arrested.
Another Detroit News story
Excerpts from an updated Detroit News story :
It took just a half-dozen minutes: From the dutiful fast-food worker alerting police to a drunk driver, to the policeman who just missed him, to the frantic calls from motorists alerting authorities to the impending tragedy.
"A truck came at us, going the wrong way on the highway," a woman told a suburban Toledo police dispatcher shortly before midnight Sunday, according to a tape of the conversation obtained by The Detroit News. "That's not good," the dispatcher responded.
A few minutes and less than 4 miles later, the driver, a 24-year-old from Michigan who police say was drunk, plowed into a Chevrolet Astro minivan along Interstate 280 in Toledo. The crash occurred when a Ford F-350 pickup truck driving the wrong way on the freeway struck the van carrying eight people. According to reports, the crash near Manhattan Boulevard was so horrific that it sheared the minivan in two along its right side.
The 911 tapes chronicle a desperate attempt by police to catch Gagnon after he was spotted by a Taco Bell worker in the small community of Oregon, Ohio. The worker, noticing Gagnon appeared intoxicated, phoned police. "I work at Taco Bell and there this guy. He's drunk ..." said an employee identified as Jacob. "We've got him stopped in our drive-through right now and I just wondered if you could send someone over to stop him or pick him up."
The call came at 10:45 p.m. and recordings of police dispatch activity showed Oregon police responded immediately. "We're sending somebody over there right now," a male dispatcher said. Four minutes later, it appeared Gagnon had eluded police. "I'm sure I passed him," one officer responded. Then, in two similar calls, motorists on Interstate 280 reported Gagnon's wrong-way path.
By now, as Gagnon sped the short few miles out of Oregon and into Toledo, an Oregon dispatcher alerted Toledo police. "He was drunk over at Taco Bell," she said. "We couldn't catch him." Police estimate Gagnon drove at least 3 miles in the wrong direction before hitting the Griffin van. Toledo police confirmed they had received numerous frantic calls about a pickup truck driving the wrong way on the freeway.
According to police reports, the Griffin family was returning to their home in Parkville, Md., after visiting relatives in Michigan. Police said the tragedy began when Gagnon left a bar in Oregon, Ohio -- identified by some reports as the Rodeo Bar -- and headed to a nearby Taco Bell. Restaurant personnel notified police that an intoxicated driver was on the premises, but Gagnon had left by the time police arrived.
Police Sgt. Richard Murphy said the crash was the worst he could remember during his 41 years as an officer. "I can't recall having five at one time, ever," said Murphy, who reported that Gagnon was under guard at the hospital. Murphy said Gagnon will likely be released later today and then will be arrested.
Detroit Free Press
Excerpts from a Detroit Free Press story :
Gagnon was charged with five counts of aggravated vehicular homicide and had a blood-alcohol level of 0.254, according to warrants filed today in Toledo Municipal Court. The charge is a second-degree felony. Minimum penalty is two years in prison. Maximum penalty is eight years.
The warrants state Gagnon was driving a 2005 Ford F350 super duty pickup truck north in the southbound lanes of I-280 when he struck a white 1999 Chevrolet Astro van driven by Danny Griffin Jr. nearly head-on on the I-280 south ramp from I-75 south. His truck ripped off the passenger side of the minivan, causing several people to be thrown from the van, according to the court records.
Toledo police have scheduled a 3:30 p.m. news conference at police headquarters in downtown Toledo to discuss the accident.
"now I got to look forward to my brother in jail the rest of his life."
Let's hope that's indeed the case and I'm not sure that's punishment enough.
posted by McCaskey on Dec 31, 2007 at 12:13:40 pm #