MUSKEGON COUNTY, Mich. — A makeshift memorial of flowers and candles has taken shape on the corner at Whitehall and River Roads in the wake of a deadly crash last week.
Emergency crews responded to the Laketon Township intersection Friday afternoon after, investigators said, a white Chevrolet Trailblazer had run a red light and been hit by an oncoming Nissan Frontier, killing a passenger in the SUV.
The Muskegon County Sheriff’s Office identified the victim as 21-year-old Amber Prause.
Family members, a witness related, said Prause was a mother and pregnant with her second child at the time of the crash. She was, they said, expecting to give birth to a baby boy next week. We were unable to independently confirm that information with investigators.
“With me having first aid training, I came running to see if I could help where I could,” Sabrina Scraver related. 13 ON YOUR SIDE found Scraver visiting the memorial Monday. She said she sprang into action after she witnessed the Nissan Frontier involved careen into a building. “Those of us there were still trying to do everything we can to save her.”
Finding Prause in the back seat on the driver’s side, Scraver discovered it was already too late.
“She was gone on impact,” she said.
As was the victim’s unborn child. The 21-year-old’s family told Scraver that Prause was pregnant at the time of the crash.
“I was just crushed,” Phyllis Miller, who heard the impact from her home on River Street explained. “This issue on our corner has been ongoing for over probably 40 years or better and the more businesses we get out here, the worse it is getting.”
Miller said she had warned her grandkids about the intersection’s reputation as a long-time local problem spot.
She also said that the county installed a traffic light at Whitehall and West River Road several decades earlier in hopes the additional visibility would make the intersection safer.
Miller suggested that the effort had been met with mixed results. Drivers, she said, now often attempted to beat the red light instead.
Police said that the southbound driver in Friday’s crash had failed to stop.
“I've seen too many accidents,” Miller said she recalled several dozen specific to the intersection in question. “When you hear those screeching tires, and then you hear the impact, which I've heard way too many times. Please, I don't want to see more fatalities.”
Scraver said she had joined Prause’s family for a memorial at the scene of her death Sunday.
“She was very loved,” an emotional Scraver noted. “There were a lot of people in here. A lot of her family a lot of her friends… Her sister sat on the ground right behind where I'm standing and just cried. She was only 21.”
13 ON YOUR SIDE attempted to obtain historical traffic data for the intersection in addition to any recent studies and insights regarding possible changes but had not received a substantive response from the county at the time of publication.
This story will be updated with any relevant details.
►Make it easy to keep up to date with more stories like this. Download the 13 ON YOUR SIDE app now.
Have a news tip? Email news@13onyourside.com, visit our Facebook page or Twitter. Subscribe to our YouTube channel.