YPSILANTI, Mich. – The driver of a red Ford Explorer crossed into oncoming traffic and hit a black Explorer with a mother and four children on U.S. 12 near Ecorse Road.
The red Explorer then went airborne causing a multi-vehicle crash that killed 38-year-old Christen Knight, a wife and mother of two from Canton Township.
Behind the wheel of the red SUV was former Eastern Michigan University track star and Athletic Hall of Fame inductee Boaz Cheboiywo. The 42-year-old is in custody and charged with suspected drunk driving causing death.
“I looked up and it was the fastest car I’d ever seen coming right us,” said Amanda Richardson.
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Richardson’s husband David saw the SUV coming at them and swerved out of the way. Cheboiywo then crashed into the black Ford Explorer behind them. Though the black SUV was totaled, the mother and four children inside survived.
Knight, who was on her way to be the the matron of honor at her college roommate’s wedding, died at the hospital. She was studying for her MBA and was a mother to an 8-month-old and a 2-year-old.
“It feels like my heart got ripped out,” said Knight’s mother Janice Caswell. “Christen was my first born. I can’t believe he took her away from us.”
“Now, they won’t know her and she loved them dearly,” Caswell added.
Cheboiywo is in the Washtenaw County Jail on a $200,000 bond. He was not hurt in the wreck and appeared untroubled, according to witnesses following the crash.
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