Driver Charged With, Killing Mom and 4 Kids

DoubleTalkingJive

TOLEDO, Ohio '” A drunken driver from Michigan sped down a highway in the wrong direction for about seven miles before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan carrying a family home after a holiday trip, police said.

A woman and four children in the minivan, including two authorities say were from Michigan, were killed in the crash that scattered toys, stuffed animals and bits of gift wrap along the edge of the road.

Tests showed that the pickup truck's wrong-way driver had a blood-alcohol level of .254 percent, more than three times the legal limit in Ohio of .08, police said.

Michael Gagnon, 24, of Adrian, Mich., was charged Monday with aggravated vehicular homicide. His speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol at the crash scene, according to a police report.

His truck was going north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 280 Sunday night, fire officials said.

Three of the victims were a mother from Maryland and her two children.

Bethany Griffin, 36, Jordan Griffin, 10, and Verde Griffin, 6 months, all of Parkville, Md., were killed along with Lacie Burkman, 7, and Haley Burkman, 10, both of Redford Township, Mich., near Detroit, according to the Lucas County Coroner's office.

Both drivers tried to avoid each other, but the crash ripped a side door off the minivan, throwing out some of the victims.

An infant seat wrapped with pink baby blankets landed in the roadway.

"It was among the worst I've seen," assistant fire chief Luis Santiago said.

A man and two other children from the minivan were taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Santiago said.

Danny Griffin Jr., 36, of Parkville, Md., was listed in serious condition; Sidney Griffin, 8, also of Parkville, was in critical condition; and Beu Burkman, 8, was in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

Gagnon also was taken to a hospital, but his injuries were not as serious, Santiago said. There was no telephone listing for him or his family in Adrian.

Samuel Gagnon, Michael Gagnon's brother, told The (Baltimore) Sun that he, his brother and their cousins were drinking at a hotel.

Their sister was supposed to drive them home, but Gagnon said his brother took off in the truck without telling anyone.

"I don't know why he decided to leave," Samuel Gagnon told the newspaper. "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."

When reached later by The Associated Press, Samuel Gagnon declined comment.

Michael Gagnon stopped at a fast-food restaurant in a Toledo suburb just before the crash, said Lt. Hank Everitt of the Oregon police department.

Workers at the restaurant called police, but Gagnon left before an officer arrived, Everitt said. Soon after, a 911 call came in about a wrong-way driver on the interstate.

Other drivers also alerted police just before the crash.

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,319165,00.html

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This is so damn sad. Unbelievable and gets me so pissed off. The entire side of this minivan was sheared off. It seems there were other kids in the car not just hers but they don't say who the other kids are. Edit* The other kids are the mothers from another marriage sad So sad, nothing more painful then the loss of a child, now this father has lost 2 of his own and two of hers, plus her, words cannot describe this pain.

James

Yeah, these family drunk driving tragedies are the worst. Deaths completely avoidable if the drunk had any sense, and its hard for the surviving family to deal with the tragedy because so many were killed.

This one reminds me of that case a few years back where a family went on a cross country trip to go ski in Colorado. For reasons that I don't remember, one of the family members stayed and was going to return home later. The rest of the family was killed by a drunk driver on the trip back home.

There needs to be federal laws in place for drinking and driving. Right now its a state law, and the fines/sentences vary drastically for each state.

DoubleTalkingJive

I totally agree James.

What Ohio state did with this guy is charge him not with DUI but with vehicular manslaughter/homicide for each person dead so he'll get like 40 something years the max they could do with him. He should get the death sentence maybe then people would wake up and see what drinking and driving can do. Too many cases like this one.

RussTCB

removed

DoubleTalkingJive

Oh man that is sooo sad. My heart goes out to those that knew this family and to her family. I can't even imagaine the impact of so many passing on. One is hard enough.

PaSnow

I did some stupid shit when I was younger, and feel bleesed it never ended this way. I have a cousin who's younger (about 24) & occasionally she'll stay over at my place. She goes to bars & parties it up etc etc with friends. On one hand, I feel like mentioning to her that myb she shouldn't be doing this & using my place anymore... but on the other I realize how responsible she is for her age because she never drives. Ever since she was 21 she'd always take a cab with her friends. So it's like they ARE doing the right thing. I couldn't live with myself if she got a DUI or worse. So I let it slide. Just sucks getting woken up at 4:30 am to them eating my Ice Cream Sandwich Sundae Ice Cream.. Although it's payback time when I wake up at 8am and start brewing my Starbucks!!

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