Accident sends one to hospital, drunk driver caught

A man was run over on Rawsonville Road last Thursday night (Oct. 23) and is in St. Joseph Mercy Hospital in a medically induced coma until he is stabilized.
A related incident resulted in the arrest of a drunk driver who tried to drive through the accident scene.
Sumpter Township Police Detective/Corporal John Toth said police received multiple calls about the first accident, with the first call coming in at 8:21 p.m.
He said Rawsonville Road south of Willis is a very dark section of roadway and a series of events caused a person to get run over.
On Rawsonville Road between Rustic Lane and Judd Road boaters, who had just come off the lake, were backing their cigarette boat into their driveway. One person had gotten out of the vehicle to help direct the driver in his backing up. That helper was behind the headlights on the vehicle and a northbound driver couldn’t see him.
The helper was using a dollar store flashlight, Det./Cpl. Toth said, and suddenly he was in front of the northbound vehicle.
“It appears to be a true accident,” Toth said, adding the northbound driver had no alcohol, but the victim had alcohol in his system.
Toth said they closed the roadway from Rustic Lane north to Judd and there were a lot of emergency vehicles on Rawsonville Road, including a Michigan State Police accident team from Trenton investigating the incident. There also were two fire trucks, three police cars, Toth’s car and the chief’s car. The Huron Valley Ambulance had left the scene with the injured man.
“We were just about done, when a citizen driving a northbound car came onto the accident scene, which was well blocked-off,” Toth said.
The driver started going around the emergency vehicles slowly continuing north and Officer Brian Steffani stepped into the roadway and tried to wave him down, but the officer almost got hit by the vehicle and had to jump out of its path.
Toth said he and Officer Joseph Balowski then got into Toth’s car and gave chase, finally stopping the vehicle. It turned out to be a drunk driver, Toth said.