Witnesses report wrong-way driver was speeding before I-75 fatal crash

A car driven by Winifred Lein, who drove the wrong way on I-75 north of Bowling Green early Friday morning, killing herself and three Bowling Green State University students, sits at a tow lot in Perrysburg.

BOWLING GREEN — Two witnesses to the wrong-way crash on I-75 that killed four people last week told state troopers the wrong-way driver was speeding as she drove south in the northbound lanes.

Volker Kock, an Ontario, Canada, man who was southbound on I-75 and stopped to help at the accident scene, said the wrong-way driver was not driving erratically but was speeding.

“I was going about 75 and she was going way faster,” Mr. Kock told the Ohio Highway Patrol after the crash.

His statement and other information about the deadly crash were included in the patrol’s crash report released Friday.

Winfred “Dawn” Lein, 69, of Perrysburg Township was killed in the crash after driving south in the northbound lanes of I-75 between Perrysburg and Bowling Green last Friday. About a mile south of State Rt. 582 she passed Trooper Phil Mohre who had been dispatched to find a wrong-way driver, and within moments struck a northbound car driven by Christina Goyette, 19, of Bay City, Mich., head-on.

Ms. Goyette and two of her passengers — Sarah Hammond, 21, of Yellow Springs, Ohio and Rebekah Blakkolb, 20, of Aurora, Ohio — were killed. Two other passengers — Kayla Somoles, 19, of Parma, Ohio, and Angelica Mormile, 19, of Garfield Heights, Ohio — remain in critical condition at Mercy St. Vincent Medical Center.

The patrol’s final report does not conclude where Lein entered I-75 nor does it say for sure how fast she was traveling. Toxicology reports on both drivers still are pending.