Man died from first, not second crash

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (WOOD) - Forensic tests determined a man died from his injuries suffered in a head-on crash and not from the subsequent crash by a responding Paw Paw police car.

Jeffrey Haas, 23, from Decatur, died after an SUV hit his truck head-on on Van Buren County's Red Arrow Highway in late September. The driver of the SUV, Keith Rapp, also died.

But a Paw Paw police officer responding to the crash rear-ended Haas' truck .

Kent County Medical Examiner Dr. Stephen Cohle studied accident reports and diagrams to assess whether the impact of the police cruiser could have contributed to the death of Haas.

Cohle said the SUV crushed Haas in his cab and bent the truck's frame so that the bed was titled a little to the left. The cruiser hit it from behind, and on the left of the truck bed. The medical examiner said because of the angle , the police cruiser would not have impacted the cab or the driver.

Cohle also said the Paw Paw officer was going about 70mph at the time of the impact, and was driving too fast for the dark and foggy conditions. But the angle at which he hit the truck did not impact Haas.

"It's incredible. This could have been so much worse. It could have been five or seven people killed," Cohle told 24 Hour News 8. "He appeared to be driving too fast for the visibility."

He said the police officer was "lucky."

Cohle said it was dark and foggy, but initial reports that it was smoky was because of the fiery crash. There was a light drizzly rain.

Cohle said it was clear that visibility was terrible because a woman drove up to the scene and "miraculously" sailed between a police car and a crashed car. She missed both of them, just by chance. She could not see the crash either until she was on top of it.

The fact the police cruiser hit the truck was not initially reported by the Paw Paw police.