Three BGSU scholars die in wrong-way crash
A vehicle that had traveled the wrong way for several miles on an Ohio interstate slammed head-on Friday. The car was in a caravan of vehicles as 16 BGSU students, all members of the Alpha Xi Delta sorority, headed to the Detroit airport to catch an early morning flight to the Dominican Republic to spend spring break at a resort, killing three of the young women and the other driver.
The accident happened around 2:30 a.m.The State Highway Patrol says the car the students were in was hit head-on on I-75 near the university. The wrong-way driver also died.
The car carrying the three Alpha Xi Delta members, ages 19 to 21, and two other sorority sisters hit the wrong-way vehicle overnight on a rise in Interstate 75 south of Toledo, just miles from Bowling Green State University, which they all attended. The two survivors were seriously injured.
“I don’t think the college girls ever saw it coming. Nothing they could have done to avoid the crash,” Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said.
The wrong-way driver has been identified as Winifred D. Lein, 69, of Perrysburg. Investigators are looking into why she was driving on the wrong side of the divided highway, and 911 and police radio traffic indicate she had been heading the wrong direction for at least seven miles.
BGSU identifies the students who died as Rebekah Blakkolb, 20, of Aurora, Ohio, a junior in the College of Education and Human Development; Christina Goyett, 19, of Bay City, Mich., a sophomore in the College of Education and Human Development; and Sarah Hammond, 21, of Yellow Springs, Ohio, a junior in the College of Education and Human Development.
Goyett was excited about her first trip to the Dominican Republic, said Dee Bishop, a family friend in Bay City. She was a graduate of John Glenn High School, where she competed in swimming. “She was an absolutely wonderful, positive, happy person,” Bishop said.
“We’re shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic news,” said BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey. “Our hearts go out to the families, friends and sorority sisters of these young women.”
