HOLLAND, Mich. — Losing a loved one is supposed to be a time of grief and for families to remember their loved ones, but Mike Sheppard is still trying to understand the driver behind an SUV that impatiently zig-zagged its way through his father’s funeral procession to Lakewood Cemetery.
“I just wish they realized how disrespectful that was and that they probably wish no one would do that to their family,” Mike Sheppard said.
Cell phone video shows what appears to be a mid-2000s light green Honda CRV zig-zagging its way through more than ten cars during the procession on Lakewood Avenue and 152nd.
At one point, the SUV came close to hitting the hearse that carried Richard Sheppard, Mike's deceased father. The unknown driver made their way through the procession without hitting any cars in the procession.
“We're amazed that they never hit anybody, but they came very close,” Sheppard said.
According to the State of Michigan traffic laws:
- A person passing through a funeral procession of motor vehicles, with a vehicle of any kind, is responsible for a civil infraction.
- A motor vehicle forming part of a funeral procession, when going to a place of burial, shall have the right of way over all other vehicles except fire apparatus, ambulances, and police patrol vehicles at a street or highway intersection within this state if the vehicle in the funeral procession displays a flag.
Sheppard says this will be etched in his family’s memory forever. He says the driver put their own safety at risk, and hopes they are held accountable to the fullest extend allowable.
“If there was a valid reason for what they did, then the family is willing to forgive, but if there is no reason for swerving in and out of every car at a procession and almost running the hearse off the road, I don't know how we can forgive that,” Sheppard said.
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