Police were able to find him through a tip received at Midland Crime Stoppers.

Tuesday night, 46-year-old Michelle Cogan was hit by a 2000 Ford Mustang as she crossed Midland Drive at Neely. The driver of the car then fled the scene. Cogan died the next day at Midland Memorial Hospital. Police say the teen left the scene because he was scared.

The teen has been charged with Failure to Stop and Render Aid, a third degree felony. Midland Police say they have also recovered the teen’s Mustang.

Traffic investigators are urging that whenever a person is involved in an accident that they remain at the scene.

Jeffrey Evan Demko and Frankie Pipkins both died after their jeep slid off Red Arrow Highway. They were both 18 years old. It happened just before six. Friends say the two were headed to the high school basketball game.

“The mood is there is a cloud over our district right now but we are working through it,” says Superintendent Kevin Ivers from Bridgman Schools.

The Bridgman High School upperclassmen were headed south on the highway. Police say they lost control of the jeep and hit an SUV in the oncoming lane. The roads were covered in snow and ice. Police say the teens were driving too fast for the conditions.

The teens were not wearing seat belts. The driver, Demko, was thrown from the jeep. He was pronounced dead at the scene. The passenger, Pipkins, was pronounced dead at Lakeland hospital Wednesday morning.

Both teens are well known for their involvement in high school athletics. The two teens were both on the football team together. Demko, a senior, was on the swimming and track team. Pipkins, a junior, was on the wrestling team.

“They were both very well liked in the community and school and they had their future ahead of them. It’s terrible, just a tragedy,” says Sgt. Ken High from Michigan State Police.

The survivor in the oncoming vehicle, Dr. Matthew Reck, is expected to be okay.

Alcohol and drugs are not a factor in the crash.

Meanwhile all sports events at Bridgman High have been cancelled for the rest of the week

Article originally posted at WNDU

Editor’s note: A candlelight vigil has been scheduled for Jan. 6. See details at the end of this story. More updates as this story develops.
The Kent-Meridian community is mourning the loss of one of its own this week after a car crash over the weekend left one student dead and three others injured.

Dorian Tursic, 18, was killed Sunday morning when the 2004 Chevrolet Impala he was driving crashed into a tree in the 23800 block of 64th Avenue South in Kent.

The three other students, Jordan Bell, 17, Molly Kirk, 14, and Malaika Henry, 14, were transported to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle with serious, but non-life threatening injuries.

According to a press release from the Kent Police Department, the accident occurred at approximately 3:58 a.m. Jan. 3.

The group of teenagers in the vehicle had met earlier with a second group of friends in SeaTac. Both vehicles of teenagers were on their way to a residence in Kent when the collision occurred.

The second vehicle witnessed, but was not involved in the collision. The Kent Traffic unit responded and their preliminary investigation indicates that high speeds and driver inexperience were contributing factors in the cause of the collision. As of Monday, it was not known if alcohol played a part, and that determination will depend on lab tests, the results of which are not expected back for approximately four weeks.

According to Kent-Meridian High School Principal Wade Barringer, Tursic transferred in September to K-M from Tyee High School in SeaTac but was already “pretty popular” among the student body.

“In that time he’s made a lot of friends,” Barringer said Monday in a phone interview.

Tursic, a senior, was a member of the varsity basketball team and carried a 3.8 grade point average, according to Barringer, who said Tursic had plans to go on to college after graduation.

“The first time I ever met him he said he was going to Stanford,” Barringer said, adding that Tursic had a tough exterior but was a good-hearted, highly intelligent kid with a bright future.

Counselors and staff were on call at Kent-Meridian on Monday to meet with students, who were also given time to process the information on their own and in groups with fellow students, though most had returned to class by noon.

“They just needed some time to process it with each other,” Barringer said, adding that some students arrived to school Monday wearing shirts and hats in memory of Tursic.

A moment of silence was also held Monday morning at the school in his honor and a candlelight vigil is planned for 6 p.m. Wednesday at French Field.

Tursic was also employed at the Champs Sports store at Southcenter and was a member of the Kent-Meridian varsity basketball team where he had recently been named a starter.

“He was really laid back,” said K-M coach Brian Lockhart. “He would always joke and was really into enjoying life.

“The first thing I noticed him was that he had a good basketball IQ. He was sneaky quick,” Lockhart continued. “He had the ability to take it off the dribble, he was into leaners and spin moves off the glass. He had a feel for the game.”

Barringer and Lockhart met with members of the team at a meeting Sunday and Barringer met with Tursic’s mother Monday morning.

For the remainder of the season, the Royals basketball team will honor Tursic’s memory by wearing black wristbands emblazoned with the 6-foot-2-inch guard’s number, 22. His jersey will also be displayed on an empty chair at home and away games for the rest of the season and Tursic will continue to be announced at games and memorialized in programs.

The other injured students were also members of the school’s varsity girls basketball team and Barringer said students and staff at K-M were optimistic for a speedy recovery and return for all three.

“We hope they are able to recover soon and come back to school,” he said.

A community candlelight vigil for Tursic has been scheduled for 6 p.m. Jan. 6 at Kent-Meridian High School’s French Field.

This article was originally published in the Kent Reporter on January 4, 2010.

State troopers say Dustin Snyder of Jamesville was killed when his car was hit on Prison Camp Road, near Bailey Road, around 10:40 p.m.

The Highway Patrol says a car driven by Adam Holliday of Williamston went left of center and hit Snyder’s vehicle head on.

Troopers tell WITN News that additional charges are possible against Holliday. They say he suffered a broken leg in the accident and was transported to Pitt County Memorial Hospital. PCMH says Holliday has been released from the hospital.

Snyder worked at the Piggly Wiggly in Williamston, and had been let off work so he could go hunting. Donald Barber, store manager, talked to us about Snyder, “He talked about fishing and hunting all the time, everybody loved him, you just couldn’t help but love him.” Ironically, employees say Holliday had also worked at the same store in the past with Snyder.

Police say Roberts lost control of the car she was driving and was not wearing a seatbelt. The teen was thrown from the vehicle that flipped several times. Roberts died from multiple injuries as a result of the crash.

Aaron Beemer lives in Newton Township, near where the crash happened. He spoke with Newswatch 16 on Christmas Day. “Me and my wife and father were sitting down for Christmas Eve and we just got the girls to bed. We were talking and heard a loud thump, thump, thump, thump. We saw lights going through the window of a car rolling and we ran outside.”

Beemer says he and his wife tried to divert traffic until police officers arrived. “My wife was slowing down cars up the road…there was another car that came down the driveway and stopped. The guy hollered ‘I think there’s someone lying in the road.’” That’s when Beemer checked for Roberts’ pulse and found none.

The road was closed for three hours while State Troopers investigated the deadly wreck. The cause of the accident in Lackawanna County is under investigation.
WNEP-TV

The accident happened shortly after 9:00 a.m. on State Route 53.

According to the Ohio Highway Patrol, a pickup truck driven by 17-year-old Jonathan Pope was heading north, when it was struck head-on by another vehicle.

Investigators say the driver of the car that struck Pope, 73-year-old Omer Swartz of Bradner, was trying to pass another vehicle, and was still heading south in the northbound lanes when the accident occurred.

Pope is a junior at Port Clinton High School, and his father is a coach for the wrestling team.

The Highway Patrol says the teen was not wearing a seat belt, and his 1988 Chevrolet S-10 pickup truck was not equipped with airbags.

Pope was pronounced dead at the scene. Swartz was flown to a Toledo hospital, with what are described as “incapacitating” injuries, authorities said.

The crash remains under investigation, and thus far, no citations have been issued.

The highway patrol tells Fox 8 News that alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the crash.

Teen Car Accident

Seventeen-year-old Abigail Finnegan was transported to MedCentral Shelby Hospital where she was pronounced dead from injuries she received in the accident.

The Mansfield State Highway Patrol says Finnegan, who was wearing a safety belt, was driving south on Bowman Street and lost control of her pickup. It slid left-of-center and was struck by the northbound Cass, Bloominggrove, Shiloh joint fire truck, driven by firefighter Scott Jennings.

He and his passenger, firefighter Jacob Beck, received non-life-threatening injuries and were taken to MedCentral Shelby Hospital for treatment of their injuries. The accident remains under investigation.