Local Corrections Officer Vehicle Hits and Kills Teen Pedestrian Early Sunday

Mlive reports:   A Wyoming teenager was killed early Sunday morning near Ludington after being struck on U.S. 10 by a vehicle driven by an off-duty Mason County Sheriff’s Department corrections officer.

The 14-year-old boy, who is not being identified yet, apparently jumped out of a stopped van and into the road, where he was hit by the eastbound corrections officer driving home from a part-time shift at the county jail.

“The guy never saw him,” said Tom Trenner, Mason County undersheriff.

The accident happened about 5:40 a.m. on U.S. 10 east of the Pere Marquette Highway, between the county fairgrounds and the airfield.

The van had stopped in the center lane, Trenner said, when the teen apparently jumped out.

He did not know why the van had stopped or why the teen had left the vehicle, which contained the boy’s father and another person. They had just left the nearby Best Western hotel, he said.

The incident is under investigation by the Michigan State Police because of the part-time officer’s involvement. The man will be off work for the next couple weeks, Trenner said.

A video from WOOD:

Teen hit, killed by corrections officer: woodtv.com

 

We've recently been discussing in detail an accident that happened down in Holland Township.  It looks from the article that a van stopped very early in the morning, when it was dark, a teen jumped out and heads toward the Best Western and is struck by someone who just happens to be a corrections officer for the MCSO headed home. Is this accident anyone's fault?  Or do we need more information? 

 

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Here is the latest update.  The teen's name is Darius Vanbrook and he comes from Lansing, MI not from Wyoming (Grand Rapids).  The story has still basically remained the same, but even two full days afterwards, the only officials making public statements is the Mason County Sheriff's Office Tom Trenner. 

I see this as being about as fair as letting the boy's mother (who wasn't even there) make public statements about what officially happened.  None of the multiple stories out there has any reportage from anyone other than Trenner.

Here's what the MCSO told the Ludington Daily News that was reported today:  "... and into the path of an eastbound vehicle that, according to the Mason County Sheriff's Office, had no chance of avoiding the boy, Darius Vanbrook, who died after being struck."  "No chance"?  The corrections officer admitted he had not seen the boy, how does he know, or was this from the boy's father.  But this sounds like an investigatory conclusion to me made by the MCSO, who continue to tell us that the State Police have been called in to investigate what actually happened.  Even though to the MCSO, it's a foregone conclusion at this point.

Still, I would not be assigning blame, or lack thereof, to anybody as of yet, just critiquing the process so far.  Here is a link to Darius Vanbrook's Facebook page, perhaps the modern equivalent of seeing what type of young person he was. 

Strange accident indeed, and would like more info. on the story before making any conclusions. One observation is WTH is the van doing in the middle lane, and at 5:40 in the early dark winter morn. with teenagers aboard?

One observation is WTH is the van doing in the middle lane, and at 5:40 in the early dark winter morn. with teenagers aboard? YEP!

I was walking across US 10 east of town after dark last night when what bothered me about this report so far struck me.  I take these 'facts' from the most recent MLive update. 

FACTS:

1)  Michael HAYS, the MCSO corrections officer is driving back home after finishing his shift at the MC jail.

2)  He is driving eastbound on US 10 near the Best Western area.

3)  A van is parked in the median of the 5 lane highway, the turn lane.

4)  A passenger, 14 y.o. Darius VANBROOK, in the van gets out and gets in the path of HAYS' vehicle.

5)  HAYS says "he did not see the teen".

6)  MCSO Undersheriff TRENNER says the "teen jetted out from behind the van".

 

REASONED PRESUMPTIONS:

1)  HAYS was driving in the right-most lane.  At 5:40 AM Sunday morning, there would be little traffic, plus if HAYS saw a car parked in the center with snowy roads, he would likely not be in the left lane.

2)  Weather conditions were good, there was snow on the ground, but slippery roads had nothing to do with the accident, nor was visiblity due to snow squalls existent.

 

The thing that struck me across the head in crossing US 10 is that there is great visibility on the street for a long distance ahead on its length between the area of say McDonald's to Best Western, even during nighttime.  But HAYS in Fact 5 says he never saw the teen.  And yet TRENNER reports the teen 'jetted' from the van(FACT 6), something that he would've heard from HAYS, one would presume, since the only other witnesses were the van's occupants, whose perspective is never given in any of the stories so far. 

How can you not see anyone and yet comment that they jetted from the van?

How can you not see anyone who gets out of a van, parked and with lights on and likely the only other vehicle for miles,(let us even suppose that he went out a side, sliding door of the van) who then crosses a 9 ft. lane and gets into your lane?  Even if Darius was a world record holding sprinter with a great start, he would still take a half of a second to get in front of HAYS vehicle.  How do you not see anyone who is in front of you for that amount of time?

 

The facts don't add up.

 

Wow, that's pretty rough for Hays as well. A few years back his wife and mother of their twin girls (if the same Hays) died when falling from her horse and hitting her head on a fence post. Its beside the point anyway.

But, I have to wonder as well if he was in the right lane and the van was in the center was the van facing west(toward town). If it was, and it's headlights were on would they have made a glare that would have prevented him from seeing the boy until it was to late? We need more informatioin on this one to figure out what exactly happened.

One of my biggest fears when driving is when i see a vehicle parked to the side of the road, a person just never knows when someone is going to hop out or come into the road.

If I saw a parked van in the middle of the road across from someplace where someone might either be getting picked up or dropped off, I would be alert to the movement of pedestrians.  I feel bad for all parties to this incident, and if Hays is the same man you speak of, I can commiserate with him on his prior loss and, of course, honor his service as a CO.  Maybe glare helped obscure the youth, but it has never been mentioned.

But if he was otherwise distracted or sleep-deprived and missed seeing the kid because of that, there would be no harm in admitting such, and perhaps a bit of release from the bonds of any guilt he might feel for the accident.  I am hoping to get at some point the MSP report on this crash, as there does not seem to be any follow up in the news reports.

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