Kent County authorities have determined that a Paw Paw police officer was -not- partly to blame for the death of a Decatur man in a car crash this fall. 23 year-old Jeffery Haas was killed when his truck was struck head-on by an SUV on Red Arrow Highway in Antwerp Township September 27th. However, a responding officer from the Paw Paw Police Department also crashed his squad car into Haas's vehicle upon arrival at the scene, and an investigation into the matter was opened by the Van Buren County Sheriffs Department. Accident diagrams and other forensic information were handed off to the Kent County Medical Examiner, who has found that the second crash could not have contributed to Haas's death. Doctor Stephen Cohle told WOOD TV in Grand Rapids that because of the angles in which all the vehicles were positioned, the squad car collision wouldn't have affected the cab of Haas's truck. However, he also said that the Paw Paw officer was driving much too fast for the poor visibility conditions, and the scene could easily have turned out much worse. The police officer was reportedly going about 70 miles an hour. The other driver in the initial crash was also killed.
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