OAKLAND TOWNSHIP (WWJ) A Livonia woman died in a crash in Oakland Township just over 24 hours to the minute after her husband fell through the ice while ice-fishing with their teenage grandson, the sheriff’s office said.
According to the Oakland County Sheriff’s Office; her 66-year-old husband remains in critical condition. Investigators told WWJ the woman, also 66, was on her way to pick up her husband’s car when the crash happened on Friday at 1:53 p.m. on Rochester Road at Beach Drive, near Romeo Road. She was a back seat passenger in the 2021 Jeep Grand Cherokee that was struck head-on when another driver crossed over the centerline.
“This is an unspeakable tragedy that has befallen this family in a very short time,” Oakland County Sheriff Mike Bouchard said. “Two tragic and unrelated incidents happen within 24 hours of each other…Our prayers are with the family.”
At 1:45 p.m. on Thursday; her husband fell through the ice on Lake George in Addison Township, east of Oxford. The lake is located at Leonard near Lake George Road, about seven miles away from where the fatal crash occurred.
The grandfather and grandson had gone out to the ice to drill a hole so they could go fishing. The ice gave out.
"Both went into the water, the grandfather first. The grandson tried to help him, then he went in because the ice broke underneath both of them at different points in time," Bouchard said.
According to the sheriff’s office, a neighbor saw the pair fall and took a kayak out to them. He helped the boy out of the water and called for a second kayak to rescue the grandfather. The neighbor was unable to remove the grandfather because the ice kept breaking, but he succeeded in keeping his head above the water until rescue teams from the Sheriff’s Office and Addison Township Fire Department arrived.
"We hope that (the grandfather) makes a full recovery," Bouchard said on WWJ. "But it's touch and go given that he was in the water for a period of time and they had to do CPR on scene."
The 15-year-old grandson, a resident of Ligonier, Pennsylvania, was treated and released.
In Friday’s crash; a 19-year-old Oakland Township man, driving a 2011 Ford Edge, crossed the centerline while traveling south on Rochester Road and struck the victim’s northbound Jeep head-on.
Another married couple and the Livonia woman were traveling together. She was pronounced dead at the scene. The wife is listed in critical condition. The husband is in stable condition.
The 19-year-old was life-flighted to a nearby hospital, where he’s listed in stable condition.
The names of the Livonia woman and her husband were not released.