5 in family in minivan killed in crash

Three people in the van had life-threatening injuries.

TOLEDO (AP) — A drunken driver sped down a highway in the wrong direction for about four miles before his pickup truck slammed into a minivan carrying a family home after a holiday trip, police said.

A woman and four children in the minivan, including an 8-week-old girl, were killed in the crash that scattered toys, stuffed animals and bits of gift wrap along the edge of the road.

Tests showed that the pickup truck’s wrong-way driver had a blood-alcohol level of 0.254 percent, more than three times the legal limit in Ohio of 0.08, police said.

Michael Gagnon, 24, of Adrian, Mich., was charged Monday with aggravated vehicular homicide. His speech was slurred and he smelled of alcohol at the crash scene, according to a police report.

His truck was going north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 280 Sunday night, fire officials said.

Bethany Griffin, 36; Jordan Griffin, 10; Vadi Griffin, 8 weeks; Lacie Burkman, 7; and Haley Burkman, 10, were killed, according to police. All are from Parkville, Md., police said

The crash ripped a side door off the minivan, throwing out some of the victims. An infant seat wrapped with pink baby blankets landed in the road.

A man and two other children from the minivan were taken to St. Vincent Mercy Medical Center with life-threatening injuries, Santiago said.

Danny Griffin Jr., 36, was listed in serious condition; Sidney Griffin, 8, was in critical condition; and Beu Burkman, 8, was in serious condition, a hospital spokeswoman said.

All eight had been visiting family in Michigan and were returning to Maryland.

Danny Griffin, the minivan’s driver, was rounding a curve when the minivan hit the truck, said Ron Spann, a deputy chief with Toledo police.

“I can’t imagine the shock when he saw that truck,” Spann said.

Gagnon was taken to a hospital with an injured jaw and remained there Monday afternoon, Spann said. He will be taken to jail as soon as he is released from the hospital, Spann said.

Samuel Gagnon, Michael Gagnon’s brother, told The (Baltimore) Sun that he, his brother and their cousins were drinking at a hotel.

Their sister was supposed to drive them home, but Gagnon said his brother took off in the truck without telling anyone.

“I don’t know why he decided to leave,” Samuel Gagnon told the newspaper. “Everyone’s in shock. We’re supposed to be celebrating the New Year, but now I got to look forward to my brother in jail the rest of his life.”

Michael Gagnon also had been drinking at a bar Sunday night, Spann said. He then stopped at a fast-food restaurant in a Toledo suburb just before the crash, said Lt. Hank Everitt of the Oregon police department.

Workers at the restaurant called police, but Gagnon left before an officer arrived, Everitt said. Soon after Gagnon left the restaurant, a 911 call came in about a wrong-way driver on the interstate.

Gagnon crossed a towering cable-supported bridge into Toledo and continued in the wrong direction, missing other motorists, police said.

“He hasn’t crashed into anybody?” a dispatcher asked one driver. The man replied “not yet.”

At least four other drivers also alerted police just before the crash.