A rescue unit responding to a deadly accident in Montcalm County was itself involved in a second, also fatal, crash late Monday morning.
The Montcalm County Rescue Unit was heading north on West County Line Road with its lights and siren on when it collided with an eastbound car on Kendaville Road in Pierson Township, according to preliminary police reports. The passenger in the civilian car died instantly. She was later identified as 61-year-old Shirley Narloch, of Lakeview.
The driver of the car was Max Young, who was taken to Spectrum Butterworth by Aero Med and is listed in critical condition. Young, 64, also is from Lakeview.
The driver of the rescue unit — 70-year-old Richard Wayne Pierce, of Pierson — was taken by ambulance to a Grand Rapids hospital with nonlife-threatening injuries. He didn’t have any passengers with him.
The rescue unit had a stop sign and the eastbound car did not, and authorities believe Pierce failed to yield at the intersection’s stop sign, hitting the other vehicle broadside. The crash happened at 11:13 a.m., according to a Montcalm County Sheriff’s Office news release.
The county prosecutor’s office will review the crash and determine if charges will be issued.
