OCEANA COUNTY, Mich. — Oceana County Undersheriff Ryan Schiller spoke on the crash that claimed the life of 20-year-old Braden VanPutten at Silver Lake Sand Dunes on Sunday afternoon.
"The driver of the quad was, in fact, wearing a helmet," said Schiller.
Vanputten, who is from Coopersville, was on his quad when he collided with a side-by-side that was carrying a 14-year-old passenger.
The driver of the side-by-side and passenger had non-life threatening injuries.
"It's a very busy area," said Schiller. "This is the area that the accident occurred, in a non-directional area. This area you can travel, you know, any direction that the operators and drivers desire."
This accident was one of three that happened over Labor Day Weekend.
There was an accident on the ORV part of the dunes Saturday afternoon. Then on Labor Day, the DNR confirmed there was a two-vehicle accident on the dunes in the afternoon. Both accidents are not believed to be deadly.
Over the summer, this was the second death to happen at the dunes. On Memorial Day, Kadie Price was hit and killed by a Jeep on the "dragstrip" after pushing her 2-year-old daughter out of the vehicle's path.
"The attention that the tragedy that occurred on Memorial Day weekend, when that occurred, it kind of shed light on some of the crashes," said Schiller. "You know, for the number of people that are in the Silver Lake State Park, using it on a weekly, daily basis, that number is significant, we do respond to a number of crashes out there on a weekly basis. Not all of them involve serious injuries. Do I think there's more accidents? I don't necessarily know if that would be accurate."
We did reach out to the Department of Natural Resources that manages the park. While they declined to comment on right now on the incident, Ron Olson, the Chief of Parks and Recreation, recently said they'll be working to this fall to review the parks rules to see if there's room for improvement.