OSCEOLA TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Both of the drivers involved Tuesday in a Livingston County crash that left five people dead and three in critical condition were driving without a valid driver's license, records showed.
According to the secretary of state, Matthew Jordan Carrier, 22, of Fenton, was driving on a suspended driver's license when he sped through a stop sign on Argentine Road and hit another car at M-59.
Recommended Videos
Officials said the driver of the other car, Albert Rudolph Boswell, 39, of Oakland County, was driving with an expired driver's license.
Police said Carrier was driving south around 10:30 p.m. Tuesday on Argentine Road, when he failed to stop at a stop sign and hit a car traveling east on M-59. Five people were pronounced dead at the scene and three others were taken to the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. They are in critical condition.
Carrier and his rear driver-side passenger, Kyle Eugene Lixie, 23, are listed in critical condition. Carrier was pulled from the car after the crash, and Lixie was ejected from the car.
Boswell is also listed in critical condition.
Boswell's girlfriend, Candice Lynn Dunn, 35, of Oakland County, her mother, Linda K. Hurley, 69, of Macomb County, and her mother's boyfriend, Jerome Joseph Tortomasi, 73, of Macomb County, were killed in the crash.
One of the vehicles caught fire, and the other vehicle rolled at least one time.
"Emergency responders were on the scene pretty quick. It was pretty chaotic for the first officers who were on the scene," said state police Lt. Mario Gonzales. "We don’t deal with this amount of fatalities on a regular basis.
"I’ve been doing this job for 27 years, and these have occurred many times, unfortunately, and they all affect us. When we become police officers, they don’t take away our feelings."
Decorated probation agent killed in crash
Dunn and her family were on their way home from a ceremony that recognized her as the Michigan Probation Agent of the Year at the Kellog Center in East Lansing when their car was hit.
"Oh my God, there's someone in the car that is on fire, and I can't get her," a 911 caller said after the crash.
The entire Michigan Department of Corrections was gutted by the news. Members who were at the banquet on Tuesday night said they can't fathom going from the highest professional accolade to dying in a span of hours.
Former co-workers said everyone is devastated to lose someone who made everyone and everything better.
"This is a huge loss for the UAW 600, Michigan state employees, we're all hurting from this," Marseille Allen said.