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Victims Of Deadly Wrong-Way Crash Identified

OSHTEMO TOWNSHIP, Mich. (WWJ/AP) — Police near Kalamazoo have released the names and ages of three people who were killed in a wrong-way crash on U.S. 131 in southwestern Michigan.

The sheriff's office says 59-year-old Mark Witsaman and 88-year-old Elma Witsaman were in a Ford Fiesta when their vehicle crashed head-on on the southbound side of U.S. 131.

Mark Witsaman was driving north but turned onto an exit ramp that put the vehicle in the southbound lanes Friday. One person in the pickup truck, 57-year-old Victoria Mitchell, was killed, and two family members were critically injured.

The ramp involved in the crash was rebuilt in 2015 as a single-point urban interchange in Kalamazoo County's Oshtemo Township. Undersheriff Paul Matyas predicts the state Transportation Department will be investigating.

"The truck was [traveling] southbound on US-131, so the the vehicle actually entered onto US-131 going northbound in the southbound lane," Matyas said, "but only got maybe 100 feet or so and that's where the head-on accident occurred."

 

(© Copyright 2017 CBS Broadcasting Inc. All Rights Reserved. The Associated Press contributed to this report.)

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