Deputies in Allegan County are investigating a fatal crash that temporarily shut down southbound U.S. 131 near Wayland Township.
According to the Allegan County Sheriff's Office, a single car rollover on southbound U.S. 131 at the Gun Lake Casino exit around 2:30 a.m. Sunday, March 19.
The driver lost control and slid off the road, hitting a fence and and then slid down into a ditch that runs adjacent to 12th Street. The car hit the ditch hard enough to cause it to roll over.
There were four passengers in the car, all from Grand Rapids -- two of them, including 15-year-old Alexis Danielle Brown-Johnson, were in the back seats without seat belts on when the car rolled over. Brown-Johnson was ejected from the car and killed.
The two other passengers -- 19-year-old Taliyah N. Zziwambazza of Kentwood, who was sitting in the front seat, and 17-year-old Bianca Monet Bland of Grand Rapids, who was unrestrained in the back seat -- suffered only minor injuries -- the driver suffered none. The driver and the front passenger had their seat belts on. The four of them were on their way to a party in Kalamazoo.
The southbound lanes of U.S. 131 were shut down for a couple of hours early Sunday while authorities investigated and crews cleaned up the scene.
Allegan County Sheriff's Office Captain Chris Kuhn said alcohol is believed to be a factor in the crash.
"The degree of which the driver was under the influence of that alcohol will be determined by a blood toxicology test and we'll get those results in about a month," Kuhn said.
The driver, only identified as a 20-year-old woman from Grand Rapids, is being held at the Allegan County Correctional Facility while authorities wait for her case to be reviewed by the Allegan County Prosecutor's Office.
Her identity is being withheld pending charges and arraignment.
The incident remains under investigation.
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