Wright Township I-96 Wrong-Way Crash: What a Family Killed at 3:25 a.m. Can Still Recover From the Living
A phone rings in Muskegon at an hour when only bad news travels. You answer, and a trooper you have never met tells you that your loved one is gone — that a wrong-way driver came down the eastbound lanes of I-96 in the dark, that two mid-sized SUVs met head-on just west of Exit 23, and that the only thing left to do is identify the bodies. You sit down. The room tilts. The rest of the day is paperwork and silence, and then it is the next day, and an adjuster you have never met is calling to “see how you’re doing” and to ask you to “just walk me through what happened.” That call is the first move in a fight, and it begins before the funeral.
If you are reading this after learning that a member of your family died in the wrong-way crash on I-96 near Wright Township, Ottawa County, on the morning of June 19, 2026, we are sorry. We are the wrong-way crash lawyers at Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — and we represent families across Michigan in fatal head-on collisions involving impaired, distracted, and reckless drivers. We have walked other families through this exact week. We can walk you through it, too. The consultation is free, the call is confidential, and you pay nothing unless we recover. The number is 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911), and a real person answers twenty-four hours a day. We serve families in English and in Spanish. Hablamos Español.
This page is built to do three things in the next twenty minutes. It will tell you what the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office is investigating, what Michigan law says about who owes you money, and what to do — and what not to do — in the seventy-two hours after a fatal wrong-way crash. We will be specific. We will not soften what we have to say. The page is also long on purpose, because the questions a real family has on day three are not the same as the questions they had on day one, and we want you to finish it without a single unanswered search left to type.
What We Know About the Wright Township I-96 Crash
At approximately 3:25 a.m. on Friday, June 19, 2026, the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office received reports of a wrong-way driver traveling westbound in the eastbound lanes of I-96 in Wright Township, Ottawa County, Michigan. Deputies were dispatched to the area just west of Exit 23. When they arrived, they found the wreckage of a two-vehicle head-on collision. Both vehicles were mid-sized SUVs.
The wrong-way driver — a 24-year-old man — died at the scene. Inside the second SUV, which had been traveling in the correct eastbound direction, deputies found a 53-year-old Muskegon woman behind the wheel and a 50-year-old Muskegon man in the passenger seat. Both died at the scene. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office used traffic-services personnel, drone units, and the Critical Scene Team to document the scene. The crash remains under investigation. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office is the lead investigative agency.
That is the verified public record as of this writing. Everything that follows in this page is built around the confirmed fact pattern: a wrong-way driver entered a controlled-access highway at highway speed, in the dark, on a stretch of road where the speed limit is seventy miles per hour and the realistic speed of traffic is well above that. Head-on collisions on interstate highways are the rarest crash type, and they are the deadliest, because the closing speed is the sum of both vehicles’ speeds. If the Muskegon couple was traveling at the posted speed, and the wrong-way driver was traveling at the posted speed in the opposite direction, the impact carried roughly the energy of a single vehicle hitting a concrete wall at more than one hundred forty miles per hour. That is the engineering reality of what happened to the people in your family.
“Three people were killed in a wrong-way crash on I-96 in Wright Township Friday morning. The wrong way driver, a 24-year-old man died on the scene. The two occupants in the second SUV also died on the scene. The crash remains under investigation by the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office.”
— Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office statement, June 19, 2026
We quote the investigating agency directly because it is the one public source that is not going to disappear or be revised, and because every legal step we take over the next several months will be built on top of its findings.
Why a 3:25 a.m. Wrong-Way Driver on I-96 Is Almost Never an Accident
Wrong-way driving on a divided interstate is not the same kind of mistake as drifting across a centerline on a two-lane road. To enter the eastbound lanes of I-96 going westbound, a driver has to do something affirmative. On this corridor — the segment of I-96 that connects Grand Rapids to Muskegon and onward toward the Lake Michigan shoreline — a wrong-way entry typically happens at an interchange. A driver leaves a parking lot, a side street, or an on-premise exit from a bar or restaurant and turns onto an off-ramp that leads back toward the freeway. From the driver’s perspective, in the dark, in the wrong frame of mind, an off-ramp and an on-ramp can look identical. Both are ramps. Both have a yield sign. The only difference is direction.
The fatal sequence on the morning of June 19 looks like this: at some point shortly before 3:25 a.m., the 24-year-old driver entered the eastbound lanes of I-96 traveling westbound. He may have entered at Exit 23, the 8th Avenue interchange, or at the 68th Avenue interchange nearby, both of which sit in the rural-suburban transition zone where Ottawa County meets the outer edge of the Grand Rapids metropolitan area. He then drove for an unknown distance against traffic, with headlights pointed at oncoming vehicles, until the two SUVs met just west of Exit 23. The crash was reported by other motorists and by 911 calls. Deputies arrived within minutes. By the time they arrived, the three people inside the two vehicles were already dead.
The 3:25 a.m. hour is statistically consistent with what highway-safety researchers call “bar time” — the window between two a.m. and four a.m. on weekend mornings, when patrons leave alcohol-serving establishments and impaired drivers make the same predictable errors on the same predictable roads. The Sheriff’s Office has not yet released a toxicology report or named a contributing cause. They do not have to, for the law to begin working in your favor. The mere fact of a wrong-way entry on a controlled-access highway at 3:25 a.m. is itself a violation of the Michigan Vehicle Code, and the violation is the foundation of a negligence claim that does not require the Sheriff to finish their report.
Who Can Be Sued for a Wrong-Way Fatal Crash in Michigan
Wrong-way crashes look simple, but the defendant list is rarely just the at-fault driver. The at-fault driver’s estate may carry limited insurance, and an experienced trial team looks up the corporate and commercial chain for any other entity whose choices contributed to the death. In the case of the I-96 crash near Wright Township, our investigation focuses on three categories of potential defendants, in this order.
The estate of the wrong-way driver. Driving on the wrong side of a controlled-access highway is a violation of the Michigan Vehicle Code. The 24-year-old’s estate is liable for ordinary negligence and, depending on what the toxicology report shows, for the heightened “willful and wanton” misconduct that can unlock exemplary damages under Michigan law. We sue the estate, not the family of the driver. The suit is about insurance money, not revenge, and the estate’s insurer typically controls the defense.
The owner of the wrong-way SUV, if different from the driver. Michigan recognizes the doctrine of negligent entrustment. If the driver was not the registered owner, and if the owner knew, or should have known, that the driver was impaired, unlicensed, or had a documented history of reckless driving, the owner is on the hook for letting the keys go. The vehicle’s registration, the insurance policy declarations page, and the prior police reports tied to that vehicle are the first three records we pull.
Any alcohol-serving establishment that overserved the wrong-way driver. Michigan’s Dram Shop statute, MCL 436.1801, makes a bar or restaurant that sold alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person legally responsible for the death that person then causes. This is the single most under-used cause of action in fatal crash cases, and it is often the only path to a meaningful recovery when the at-fault driver carried minimum limits. A successful Dram Shop case requires immediate, on-the-ground investigation — bar receipts, credit-card records, time-stamped surveillance video, eyewitness accounts from staff and other patrons — and the evidence clock starts the day of the crash.
The order matters. The estate case is straightforward and proceeds in parallel with the others. The negligent-entrustment case adds a defendant. The Dram Shop case, if it applies, can be the difference between a policy-limits settlement and a recovery that actually covers the financial loss your family is now facing.
What Michigan Law Says You Can Recover After a Fatal Wrong-Way Crash
Michigan is a modified no-fault insurance state. That phrase sounds technical, and it is, but its practical meaning for your family is this: every Michigan automobile insurance policy carries Personal Injury Protection (PIP) benefits that pay medical bills, rehabilitation, and a defined amount of wage loss, regardless of fault. After a fatal crash, PIP also pays funeral and burial expenses up to the policy limit. These benefits are paid by your loved one’s own insurance company, and they are paid first, before any wrongful-death case is filed.
PIP does not pay for the loss of a parent, a spouse, or a companion. It does not pay for the empty chair at the dinner table. It does not pay for the loss of financial support your family will now go without. For that, you file a wrongful-death case under Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act, MCL 600.2922. The Wrongful Death Act authorizes a personal representative — a person appointed by the probate court — to bring a case on behalf of the deceased’s surviving spouse, children, parents, and other heirs, and to recover both economic and non-economic damages.
Economic damages are the dollars with receipts. They include the income your loved one would have earned over the remainder of a working life; the value of benefits like health insurance and retirement contributions; the value of household services they performed (lawn care, childcare, home maintenance, cooking); and the out-of-pocket expenses the family has incurred since the crash. For a 53-year-old and a 50-year-old, both of whom were in the prime of their earning years, the economic loss calculation is significant. Our economic experts build a year-by-year model that includes raises they would have received, promotions they were on track for, and the employer matches on retirement contributions that will now never be made.
Non-economic damages are the dollars without receipts. They are the value of the relationship itself — the loss of society and companionship, the loss of guidance and counsel for the children, the loss of consortium between spouses, the loss of parental nurturing. Michigan law allows juries to put a dollar figure on these losses without statutory caps in standard auto wrongful-death cases. That is one of the most important things about your case. There is no Michigan cap on wrongful-death damages in an ordinary motor-vehicle case. The number the jury returns is constrained only by what twelve people in a Michigan courtroom believe a life was worth.
Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act, MCL 600.2922, allows the personal representative of a deceased person to recover damages for the loss of financial support and the loss of society and companionship suffered by the survivors.
We quote the doctrine, not just the section number, because what matters to your family is the rule, not the digits — and the rule is that Michigan treats a human life as something a jury is allowed to value fully when the death was caused by someone else’s negligence.
Survival damages are a separate but related category. If your loved one survived the impact for any period of time, even briefly, a survival action may be brought by the personal representative for the conscious-pain-and-suffering your loved one experienced between the collision and death, and for any pre-death medical expenses. The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and the medical examiner will determine whether either of the Muskegon couple survived the impact. We will read that report line by line.
Exemplary (punitive) damages are available in Michigan only when the defendant’s conduct meets a high bar — what the courts have called “willful and wanton” misconduct, which is conduct so reckless that it shows a conscious disregard for the safety of others. Drinking to the point of obvious intoxication and then driving the wrong way on an interstate is, in our judgment, exactly the kind of conduct that satisfies that standard. The availability of exemplary damages is not a guarantee. It is a tool, and we will know by the time the toxicology report is complete whether we are going to use it.
The Comparative-Fault Question and Why It Almost Certainly Does Not Apply Here
You may be worried that the insurance company will try to blame the Muskegon couple for the crash. They will try. Adjusters are trained to find a percentage of fault to assign to a victim, because in a modified comparative-fault state, every percentage point taken from the defendant is a percentage point paid to you. Michigan’s rule is the 51% modified comparative negligence rule. A plaintiff who is fifty percent or less at fault can still recover; a plaintiff who is fifty-one percent or more at fault recovers nothing.
The defense will have nothing to work with. The Muskegon couple was driving in their own lane, in the correct direction, at or near the speed limit, in the pre-dawn hours on a controlled-access highway. There is no maneuver they could have made that would have avoided a wrong-way driver approaching them in their own lane. The only way to avoid a wrong-way driver on an interstate is to see them in time, and at closing speeds of more than one hundred forty miles per hour, the human eye and the human reaction time cannot do it. The Muskegon couple bore no fault. We will prove that through accident-reconstruction experts, drone-mapping analysis of the approach to Exit 23, and the Event Data Recorder downloads from both vehicles, and the comparative-fault question in your case is one we expect to win before the case ever reaches a jury.
The Evidence Clock: What Exists, Who Holds It, and How Fast It Disappears
The first seventy-two hours after a fatal wrong-way crash are when the case is won or lost, and the reason is the evidence clock. Several categories of evidence exist right now, and every one of them is on a timer.
The Event Data Recorders in both SUVs. Modern mid-sized SUVs carry Event Data Recorders — the automotive equivalent of the black box on an airplane. The EDR records vehicle speed in the seconds before impact, throttle position, brake application (or the absence of brake application), steering input, and seatbelt status. The EDR is the single most important piece of evidence in this case, because it will show, with mathematical precision, how fast the wrong-way driver was going and whether he braked. In the wrong-way driver’s SUV, a refusal to brake in the seconds before impact is a powerful piece of evidence for both negligence and willfulness. The EDRs are in the vehicles, which are in the custody of the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and ultimately the tow yard. The vehicles may be released to the insurance companies for scrapping. We send a spoliation letter to the Sheriff’s Office, to the tow yard, and to the at-fault driver’s insurer the same day you retain us, and we request that the EDR data be preserved and downloaded by a qualified forensic examiner. The clock is short. Tow yards charge daily storage fees, and insurers are sometimes willing to crush a vehicle to destroy the evidence. We move fast.
The toxicology report on the wrong-way driver. The Ottawa County medical examiner will perform a post-mortem toxicology screen. The screen will tell us whether the wrong-way driver was impaired by alcohol, by cannabis, by controlled substances, or by some combination. The toxicology report is the single most important piece of evidence for a Dram Shop case, because a high blood-alcohol concentration is the most direct proof that a commercial alcohol vendor overserved him. The report is held by the medical examiner and can be obtained through discovery once a lawsuit is filed, but the medical examiner’s file can be lost or purged if the death is initially classified as routine. We open a probate estate immediately, which gives the personal representative standing to demand the file.
Cell phone records and cell site location data. The wrong-way driver’s cell phone, if he was carrying one, will hold the answer to the most important question in the case: where was he, and who was he with, in the four hours before 3:25 a.m.? Cell site location data places a phone within a few hundred yards of a cell tower at a given time. Text messages, call logs, and app usage tell the same story in finer detail. The clock is the data-retention policy of the cell carrier — most carriers overwrite location data after a few months, and some purge it after thirty days. We issue a preservation subpoena to the carrier within the first week.
Surveillance video from businesses near the interchange. The bars, gas stations, fast-food restaurants, and convenience stores near the 8th Avenue interchange (Exit 23) and the 68th Avenue interchange have video cameras. Most of them overwrite their recordings on a thirty-day rolling cycle. A subpoena issued in the first week freezes that video. A subpoena issued in week five finds nothing. This is why we put boots on the ground immediately.
Credit card and debit card records. If the wrong-way driver paid for drinks at a bar with a card, the bank record places him at that bar at a specific time, and the time is what the Dram Shop case is built on. Receipts and bank records are subject to standard retention policies and are most easily obtained in the first sixty days.
The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office investigative file. The crash report, the drone footage, the 911 audio, the witness statements, the measurements, the photos — all of it lives in the Sheriff’s file. We will obtain the file through a Freedom of Information Act request and, once filed, through formal discovery. The file is the public record of what happened. It is also the document the insurance company will use to undervalue your case, which is why we read it before they do.
The road itself. The geometry of the approach to Exit 23, the visibility of the wrong-way signs, the placement of the wrong-way arrow pavement markers — all of this is captured by drone today and may be re-paved or re-striped within months. We retain a drone-mapping expert to fly the corridor and produce a high-resolution three-dimensional model that we can show to a jury. The model shows what the wrong-way driver would have seen in the seconds before he entered the freeway. The model also shows what he should have seen, and the gap between the two is the case.
The Insurance Adjuster Playbook — Three Plays You Will See in the First Two Weeks
The adjuster is not your friend. The adjuster is doing a job, and the job is to settle your case for as little as the law allows. We have spent years on the other side of that desk, and we know exactly how the play works. Three plays will come in the first two weeks. Each has a counter. We name them so they do not work on you.
Play 1: The “just checking in” recorded statement. The adjuster calls within days of the crash. The tone is warm. The adjuster says they are “so sorry for your loss” and asks if you would be willing to “walk them through what happened.” You are in shock. You have not slept. You agree. The call is being recorded. The questions are designed to elicit statements that can be used against you later — whether your loved one had been drinking, whether they were wearing a seatbelt, whether they had a history of medical problems, whether they were running late for something, whether they had ever complained about the route. The counter: do not give a recorded statement to the other side’s insurance company under any circumstances. Refer the adjuster to us. We will handle the call, and we will protect the record.
Play 2: The fast check with a release attached. Within two to four weeks, the at-fault driver’s insurance company may offer a “policy-limits settlement.” The number looks large to a family that has just been hit with funeral expenses, lost income, and the sudden absence of a second earner. The check arrives with a release printed on the back or attached as a separate document. Signing the release ends the case. The counter: do not sign anything until we have completed a full Dram Shop and corporate-ownership investigation. The 24-year-old’s personal policy may carry the minimum Michigan limits, and the “policy-limits” offer may be one hundred thousand dollars — far less than the case is worth. A quick settlement forecloses the Dram Shop case and the negligent-entrustment case. We will not let that happen.
Play 3: The “we just need a few medical authorizations.” The adjuster sends a release form authorizing the insurer to pull your loved one’s medical, employment, and financial records. The release is broad enough to capture records from twenty years ago. The counter: we provide only the records the law requires us to provide, through formal discovery, in the format the law requires. We do not give the insurance company an open-book fishing expedition into your loved one’s private life.
There is a fourth play that does not come from the adjuster. It comes from the bar. The Dram Shop defendant will deny responsibility publicly, but privately, a representative of the bar’s insurance company will reach out through a claims adjuster. The conversation will be different in tone but identical in purpose. The same counters apply. Refer all calls to us.
Who We Are, and Why This Fight Is Ours
Our firm is The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC, doing business as Attorney911 — your Legal Emergency Lawyers™. We have been in business since July 18, 2001, and we have represented families in catastrophic injury and wrongful-death cases for more than two decades. We work on contingency, which means our fee is a percentage of what we recover — 33.33% if we settle before trial, 40% if we try the case. You pay nothing upfront. You pay nothing out of pocket. We advance the costs of the case. If we do not recover, you owe us nothing. We do not get paid unless we win your case.
Ralph P. Manginello is the managing partner of the firm. He has been a licensed attorney for more than twenty-seven years, since November 6, 1998, and he is admitted to practice in the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas. He is a member of the State Bar of Texas, the Houston Bar Association, the Harris County Criminal Lawyers Association, the Texas Trial Lawyers Association, the National Association of Criminal Defense Lawyers, and the Pro Bono College of the State Bar of Texas. He earned his J.D. from South Texas College of Law Houston and his B.A. in Journalism and Public Relations from the University of Texas at Austin. Before he was a lawyer, he was a journalist. He understands that every case is a story, and the side that tells the story better wins.
Lupe Peña is an associate attorney at the firm. He is licensed in Texas, admitted to the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas, and a former insurance-defense attorney. He spent years inside a national defense firm where he learned exactly how the other side values a wrongful-death case — how the adjuster sets the reserve, how the claim is run through the valuation software, how the defense picks its experts, how the delay tactics work, and how the settlement authority is set. He now uses that knowledge for the people on the other side of the table. Lupe conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. If your family prefers to discuss your case in Spanish, Lupe is the attorney who will sit at the table with you.
Our firm has recovered millions of dollars for families in trucking wrongful-death cases, brain-injury cases, and catastrophic-injury cases across the jurisdictions where we practice. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. What we can guarantee is the work: the spoliation letter on day one, the drone flight over Exit 23 in week one, the preservation subpoena to the cell carrier in week one, the boots-on-the-ground investigation of every bar and restaurant in the area in week two, the toxicology demand in week three, the formal complaint filed once the investigation is complete, and the trial preparation that begins the day we accept the case. The number at the end of the case is built from all of it.
Case Value: What a Wrongful Death Case Like This One Is Worth
We do not promise dollar amounts. The value of any case depends on the facts, and a jury’s number is the jury’s number. What we can do is tell you, with the candor you deserve, what the range looks like, so that you can evaluate any settlement offer that comes across your kitchen table with clear eyes.
The low end of the range, in a case like this, is the at-fault driver’s personal policy limits. A 24-year-old driver may carry the Michigan minimum, which historically has been among the most generous in the country for personal-injury protection but limited for third-party bodily injury and property damage. The insurance company will offer the policy limits quickly, because the policy limits are small relative to the loss. The offer may be in the range of several hundred thousand dollars. That number is not the value of the case. It is the value of one policy.
The high end of the range, in a case like this, depends on three things working in your favor. First, a successful Dram Shop case against the bar or restaurant that overserved the wrong-way driver. Dram Shop defendants carry commercial general liability policies that are far larger than a personal auto policy — often in the million-dollar range, sometimes more — and Dram Shop verdicts in fatal cases can reach the seven figures. Second, a finding of willful and wanton misconduct, which opens the door to exemplary damages designed to punish the worst conduct. Third, the size of the economic loss. A 53-year-old and a 50-year-old, both with years of earning capacity ahead of them, both of whom performed irreplaceable roles in their family, present an economic-loss number that is substantial. Combined with the loss-of-society damages for any surviving children, the case value can reach the five-million-dollar range or higher.
A reasonable working range for a case like the Wright Township I-96 crash, before we know the toxicology result, the Dram Shop defendant, and the full economic-loss picture, is in the low six figures to the mid-seven figures. We will refine the number as the investigation matures. What we will never do is quote a number we cannot stand behind in front of a jury.
The Proof Story: How a Case Like This One Is Actually Built
Cases like this one are not won in the courtroom. They are won in the weeks and months before trial, in the slow work of building a record that the insurance company cannot ignore. We open the file the day you retain us. By the end of week one, we have sent spoliation letters to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, to the tow yard holding both SUVs, to the at-fault driver’s insurance carrier, and to the cell phone carrier. We have filed the petition to open a probate estate and to appoint a personal representative. We have retained a drone-mapping expert to fly the approach to Exit 23 and to produce a three-dimensional model of the corridor. We have retained an accident-reconstruction expert to begin downloading the EDRs and modeling the closing speeds.
By the end of month one, we have obtained the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office crash report. We have obtained the toxicology screen. We have identified the on-premise alcohol vendor or vendors where the wrong-way driver was in the hours before the crash, and we have issued subpoenas to those businesses for receipts, surveillance video, and bar-tab records. We have pulled the credit card and bank records for the wrong-way driver. We have pulled his driving history, his prior crashes, and his prior contacts with law enforcement. We have interviewed witnesses who saw the wrong-way driver in the bar, on the road, or in the minutes before the crash. We have built the first draft of a demand package.
By the end of month three, we have filed the formal complaint in the appropriate Michigan circuit court. We have served the defendants. We have answered the discovery requests and begun our own. We have taken the first depositions — typically the bar’s manager, the bar’s server, the at-fault driver’s family members, and the treating personnel who can testify about the scene. We have retained a forensic economist to build the year-by-year economic-loss model. We have retained a life-care planner if any survival-period damages are in play. The number we are willing to recommend to you at trial is the number that emerges from all of that work.
The defense, meanwhile, has a different set of problems. Their policy-limits offer is no longer enough to buy the case. Their insured is dead, and the only way to limit their exposure is to point the finger at someone with deeper pockets — which is why the Dram Shop case is so important. The defense will try to settle for the policy limits and walk away. We will not let them. Not until the full picture is on the table.
The First Seventy-Two Hours: A Day-By-Day Roadmap
You do not have to make every decision today. You do have to make a few of them, and the order matters.
Day 1. Take care of yourself. Accept help. Let the family gather. Identify your loved one if asked, but ask for a few minutes alone first. Do not give a recorded statement to any insurance adjuster, including your own, until you have talked to us. Do not sign anything. If the police ask you to release the vehicle, do not — the vehicle is evidence. Save every piece of paper, every text, every email, every receipt related to the crash and to your loved one’s final hours.
Day 2. Call us at 1-888-ATTY-911. The consultation is free and confidential. We will explain Michigan law in plain English, answer every question you have, and lay out the next steps. We will assign one of our trial attorneys to your case that same day. If you prefer Spanish, ask for Lupe Peña. We will open the spoliation file, contact the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office, and identify the tow yard.
Day 3. Begin the probate estate paperwork. In Michigan, a wrongful-death case must be brought by a personal representative appointed by the probate court. We handle the probate filing. You focus on the funeral, the family, and the breathing room you need. We will be in touch with the first preservation letter by the end of the week.
Within the first week, we will also begin the Dram Shop investigation. We will be at the bars and restaurants near the 8th Avenue and 68th Avenue interchanges, talking to staff, requesting surveillance, and pulling receipts. We will be in touch with the cell phone carrier. We will be in touch with the toxicology lab. Every one of those calls is a call that the insurance company hopes we never make. We make them anyway.
Frequently Asked Questions
Who can sue for the death of a family member in a Michigan wrong-way crash?
Under Michigan’s Wrongful Death Act, MCL 600.2922, a wrongful-death case is brought by a personal representative appointed by the probate court on behalf of the deceased’s surviving spouse, children, parents, grandchildren, and other heirs. If there is no will, the probate court follows Michigan’s intestacy rules to identify the personal representative. We file the petition for you. If the family prefers a different family member to serve, we structure the petition to reflect that choice.
How long do we have to file a wrongful-death case in Michigan?
Michigan’s statute of limitations for a wrongful-death case is generally three years from the date of death, but there are exceptions that can shorten the deadline in specific situations, including cases involving government defendants. There is no benefit to waiting. The evidence clock and the witness-memory clock start the day of the crash, and a case filed on day 1,095 is a weaker case than the same case filed on day 90. The earlier you call us, the earlier the preservation letters go out, the more complete the file is, and the stronger your position is at the negotiating table.
What if the wrong-way driver was uninsured or underinsured?
Michigan requires every driver to carry uninsured and underinsured motorist coverage (UM/UIM) on their own policy. If the at-fault driver carried minimum limits and your loved one carried higher UM/UIM limits, the difference is paid by your loved one’s own insurance company. This is one reason we tell families never to cancel the deceased’s auto insurance without talking to us first. The UM/UIM coverage is an asset of the estate, and it is a path to additional recovery that is often missed.
Can we sue the bar that served the wrong-way driver?
Yes, under Michigan’s Dram Shop statute, MCL 436.1801, a bar or restaurant that sold alcohol to a visibly intoxicated person can be held liable for the death that person then causes. The case requires proof that the driver was visibly intoxicated at the bar, that the bar continued to serve him, and that the over-service was a substantial cause of the death. We investigate Dram Shop cases the same week we are retained, because the bar’s surveillance video overwrites within thirty days and the bar’s staff is the most likely to leave their employment within sixty.
What about the owner of the wrong-way SUV?
If the at-fault driver was not the registered owner of the vehicle, and if the owner knew, or should have known, that the driver was impaired or had a history of unsafe driving, the owner is liable under the doctrine of negligent entrustment. The first record we pull is the vehicle’s registration and the insurance policy declarations page. The second is the driver’s prior driving record.
Do I have to go to court?
Most wrongful-death cases settle before trial, but only because the defense has been put in a position where trial is more expensive than settlement. The defense settles when the file is strong, the expert reports are written, the depositions are taken, and the trial date is real. We prepare every case for trial, and that preparation is what makes settlement happen. If your case does go to trial, we will be at the table beside you. You will not be alone.
How much does it cost to hire Attorney911?
We work on contingency. There is no fee unless we recover. Our fee is 33.33% of the recovery if the case settles before trial, and 40% if the case goes to trial. We advance the costs of the case — filing fees, expert fees, deposition transcripts, travel — and we recover those costs out of the settlement or verdict. The free consultation is genuinely free, with no obligation. The number is 1-888-ATTY-911.
How long will this take?
The honest answer is that a fatal crash case in Michigan typically resolves in twelve to thirty-six months, depending on the number of defendants, the complexity of the evidence, and the court’s docket. The Dram Shop investigation, the EDR downloads, the toxicology report, the depositions, the expert reports, and the discovery process all take time. We will give you a realistic timeline after the first sixty days of investigation, and we will update you at every major milestone. We do not vanish. We answer the phone.
Can I speak with you in Spanish?
Yes. Lupe Peña is fluent in Spanish and conducts full client consultations in Spanish without an interpreter. If your family prefers to work through your case in Spanish, ask for Lupe when you call. Hablamos Español. We serve your family fully in the language you are most comfortable speaking. To learn more about our practice areas, visit our practice areas overview or contact our team directly.
What if I cannot afford to come to Michigan for the case?
You do not have to. We handle fatal crash cases across the country, and we work with local counsel in Michigan where required. We come to you for the important conversations, and we use video and phone for everything else. The cost of travel is on us, not on you.
Will I have to give a deposition?
Possibly, and we will prepare you for it the way we prepare our own witnesses. A deposition is a recorded question-and-answer session, taken under oath, with the defense attorney asking the questions. The defense will try to lock you into a version of the facts, so they can quote it back to the jury if the case goes to trial. We sit beside you at the deposition. We object when the questions are improper. We prepare you in advance, in person, until you can answer any question they ask without surprises. You will not face a defense attorney alone. To learn more about how we approach depositions, see our car accident guide for Michigan families.
What if my loved one was partly at fault?
Michigan’s modified comparative negligence rule bars recovery only if the plaintiff is fifty-one percent or more at fault. A plaintiff who is fifty percent or less at fault can still recover, with the recovery reduced by the percentage of fault. In a wrong-way head-on crash, the at-fault driver almost always bears one hundred percent of the fault, because the wrong-way driver was the only one who could have avoided the crash. The defense will try to assign some percentage of fault to your loved one — a late-night departure, a brief moment of inattention, a choice of route — and we will fight every percentage point. For more on how comparative fault works in practice, see our wrongful death practice overview.
Will I have to pay back my loved one’s health insurance or Medicare from the settlement?
Possibly. Medicare, Medicaid, and some private health insurers have a right of reimbursement from a wrongful-death recovery for the medical bills they paid. We negotiate those liens down, often by fifty percent or more. The hospital’s lien is the same. We handle the lien resolution as part of the case, and the net recovery to your family is what we focus on.
What should I do right now, today, if I think we have a case?
Call 1-888-ATTY-911. The call is free, confidential, and answered twenty-four hours a day. Have a pen ready. Have the crash report number if you have it. We will take it from there. To learn more about how we approach these cases from the first call, see our practice areas page or reach out to our team.
The Bottom Line
A wrong-way crash on I-96 in Wright Township, Ottawa County, on the morning of June 19, 2026, took the lives of three people. One of them was the at-fault driver. The other two were members of a Muskegon family, traveling in the right direction, in their own lane, at an hour when no one should have to think about a wrong-way driver on a highway. They had no chance to avoid what happened, and the law of Michigan is built to recognize exactly that fact. The case is winnable. The damages are real. The evidence is perishable, and the clock is short, and the insurance company is already working to settle the case for the smallest possible number.
The work we do is the work of converting a moment of crisis into a record that the defense cannot ignore. The preservation letter. The drone flight. The cell phone subpoena. The bar surveillance subpoena. The toxicology demand. The probate filing. The accident-reconstruction expert. The forensic economist. The depositions. The trial preparation. The number, in the end, is the byproduct of the work. The work is what we do.
If you have lost a member of your family in the Wright Township I-96 crash, the consultation is free, the call is confidential, and you pay nothing unless we win. We are available twenty-four hours a day at 1-888-ATTY-911 (1-888-288-9911). We serve families in English and in Spanish. Hablamos Español.
We are the wrong-way crash lawyers. This is the fight we do. Call us when you are ready.
This page is legal information prepared by Attorney911 — The Manginello Law Firm, PLLC — for the families affected by the fatal wrong-way crash on I-96 in Wright Township, Ottawa County, Michigan on June 19, 2026. It is not legal advice and does not create an attorney-client relationship. The information reflects Michigan law as of the date of publication and is subject to change. Past results depend on the facts of each case and do not guarantee future outcomes. Contacting our firm is free and confidential.