A 26-year-old Coldwater father and his 5-year-old son have been killed in a single-vehicle crash in Branch County, Michigan, and the man's 4-year-old daughter is fighting life-threatening injuries in a Kalamazoo hospital, the Michigan State Police said. Troopers from the MSP Marshall Post responded at about 6:20 p.m. on Friday, November 13, to East Central Road near South Centennial Road in Ovid Township.

Source: Michigan State Police via State Wonderer

According to the State Police, a 2017 Buick Enclave driven by the 26-year-old man was travelling westbound on East Central Road when it left the roadway, struck a tree and overturned in a field south of the road. The driver was ejected from the vehicle, while both children were trapped inside and had to be freed by responders. Branch County dispatch traffic from that evening, independently reviewed, describes the same scene: a rollover on East Central Road, a man found in the roadway with CPR under way, and two children trapped in the vehicle in critical condition.

A father and son lost, a daughter in Kalamazoo

The 5-year-old boy was taken to Insight Hospital in Coldwater for advanced treatment but later died, the State Police said. The 4-year-old girl was first taken to Beacon Health in Marshall for stabilisation and was then transferred to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo with life-threatening injuries. The State Police have not identified any of the three, saying names are being withheld pending notification of family. No ages or names of the children are published beyond what police released, and the family has been given privacy in the first days after the crash.

Speed may have played a role, police say

Preliminary findings indicate speed may have been a contributing factor in the crash, according to the State Police. Alcohol and drug use are not believed to be factors. Those are preliminary findings only: the crash remains under investigation, and no final determination has been released. Troopers were assisted at the scene by Life Care EMS, the Lakeland Volunteer Fire Department, the Coldwater Fire Department, the Branch County Sheriff's Department and a Samaritan helicopter — a response that underlines how serious the scene was on a rural township road on a Friday evening.

A rural-road crash in Michigan's deadliest month for road risk

Ovid Township is a rural community in Branch County, in Michigan's southern tier near the Indiana line, where two-lane township roads like East Central Road carry local traffic past fields and farmsteads with no lighting and few shoulders. November is also the heart of Michigan's deer-crash season and the start of the firearm deer season, a period when state safety officials routinely warn of more vehicles on rural roads at dawn and dusk. Police have not said a deer or any other vehicle played any part in this crash, and readers should not assume one did — the only factor police have named so far is possible speed.

What happens next

The Michigan State Police investigation continues, and the family's names are expected to be released once relatives have been notified. The 4-year-old girl's condition at Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo will be the focus for the family and the Coldwater community in the days ahead. Anyone who witnessed the crash or was travelling on East Central Road near South Centennial Road around 6:20 p.m. on Friday can contact the MSP Marshall Post. This story will be updated when police release the family's names and the investigation's findings.