OSHTEMO (WKZO-AM/FM) — The Kalamazoo County Sheriff’s Office has released the names of the victims that were killed in a crash on U.S. 131 near Stadium Drive on Friday.
Dead at the scene were Mark Witsaman, 59, and Elma Witsaman, 88, both of Portage. They were in the Ford Fiesta that went down the ramp in the wrong direction and collided head-on with a pickup.
Killed in that second vehicle was Victoria Mitchell, 57, of Kalamazoo.
William Mitchell, 56, and Brent Mitchell, 20, were admitted to Bronson Methodist Hospital with critical injuries.
ORIGINAL STORY:
OSHTEMO (WKZO AM/FM) — A wreck on U.S. 131 at Stadium Drive has left three dead and two others critically injured after a car got onto the wrong ramp going in the wrong direction off Stadium Drive onto the divided highway and smashed head on into a pickup coming in the opposite direction.
Kalamazoo County Undersheriff Pali Matyas said a 56-year-old man, who had an 88-year-old passenger in the car, took the wrong ramp at about 4:45 p.m. heading northbound in the southbound lanes. He says they didn’t get far before colliding with the truck.
Both of the occupants in the car and a 57-year-old woman in the pick-up truck were killed. Two other adults in the pick-up were rushed to Bronson Trauma care in critical condition.
The crash shut down the highway briefly and caused a back-up that lasted well into the evening.
There was some speculation that the driver may have become confused by the new configuration at the Stadium Drive overpass, but Matyas says they have had few problems there.
Matyas says they may never really know what happened.
All five victims are reportedly from the Kalamazoo area but no identities will be released until family members are notified.
