Dale Robert Melick, 53
, of Wayland was arraigned this afternoon in Allegan County District Court in connection with the fatal traffic crash early Saturday morning in 135th Avenue in Wayland Township.
Melick was charged with operating a motor vehicle while impaired causing death and two counts of operating while impaired causing serious injury.
Authorities say Melick was driving while drunk and his vehicle struck another, causing the death of a New Mexico woman, Jemimah S. Palsce, 36, who was a passenger in the back seat of the vehicle that was struck. She was not wearing a seat belt and had to be extricated.
She was a passenger in the vehicle driven by Scott Robert Foster, 36, and his wife, Barbara Ann, was a passenger in the front seat. Both of the Fosters were belted.
Robert Scott Foster was listed in serious condition and Barbara was in critical condition at Spectrum Hospital Butterworth campus.
Melick remains jailed on a $250,000 bond.
An officer from the Gun Lake Tribal Police Department said he was taking an arrested man to the Allegan County Jail on south bound US-131 when he observed a vehicle pass him at a high rate of speed, nearly sideswiping him. The officer immediately contacted county dispatch to alert other officers of the reckless driving behavior.
An Allegan County Sheriff’s Office deputy who was at the exit to the City of Wayland observed the vehicle exit the highway and head east on 135th Avenue. The deputy tried to conduct a stop on the vehicle, but it accelerated to a high rate of speed and continued eastbound. The deputy lost sight of the vehicle, but continued pursuit on 135th Avenue, eventually finding what appeared to be the vehicle rolled over in the ditch near 4th Street in Wayland Township.
Melick was contacted by the officer while entrapped in the vehicle, however, he was belligerent and uncooperative.
At about the same time, Allegan Central Dispatch received a 911 call from a subject whose vehicle had just been struck by another in the immediate area of the rollover crash. The deputy and an officer from the Wayland Police Department immediately searched the area and found a second vehicle that had rolled over into a dense tree line, making it virtually impossible to see.
Meanwhile, the driver of the fleeing vehicle was determined to be intoxicated and was treated and released from Allegan General Hospital
The crash remains under investigation. The sheriff’s office was assisted by the Gun Lake Tribal Police, the Michigan State Police, the Wayland Police Dept., the Wayland Fire Dept., and Wayland Area Ambulance.
PHOTO Dale Robert Melick
