Mishawaka, Indiana — It was a Father's Day a Painesville family will never forget…but for all the wrong reasons. They were hit head on by a suspected drunk driver going the wrong way on the Indiana toll road. The accident caused a multi-car pileup, killing four.
The Painesville dad lost his wife, one-year old son, and twelve-year-old niece. The fourth person to die was the wrong way driver, and there's quite a twist to that part of the story.
But there are no words to describe the crash scene photos. Hard to believe anyone survived after a driver thought to be drunk, crashed head on into an SUV.
46-year-old Octavious Rice, who was driving, miraculously survived with a crushed pelvis. But killed, on their way back from a family weekend in Chicago, his forty-two-year-old wife Denita, their one-year old son Bryson, and twelve-year-old niece Makayla. Their ten-year-old niece, Nila, survived with serious injuries.
Family members in Northeast Ohio say troopers told them little; they learned most of the story on the internet.
Curtis Scruggs, Octavious’ cousin tells us, "I understand it intellectually, but you know when you have a family that's wondering about loved ones, it's kinda callous.”
We're told calls came in around 7:30pm about a Toyota driving erratically on the Tollway near the Mishawaka exit. Six miles later, thirty-two-year-old Chintan Patel turned around, driving westbound in the eastbound lanes. That's when he crashed into the Painesville family, sending their car rolling into the median where it burst into flames.
"The biggest emotion right now is just anger. Just anger. Because this did not have to happen. All because an individual chose to drink, and then get behind the wheel of a car," Curtis tells us.
Patel, who died Monday, kept going after the crash, causing the driver of a Chevy to swerve and crash. She survived. As did the driver of a Semi who was also hit.
Then came the phone call from Octavious to his aunt.
"He told her he's not interested in living. He didn't want to be without his family," according to Curtis.
But he added, the rest of the family will get Octavious through this; they have to.
"We want him to know that all isn't lost. He's gotta come out of this strong because he still has a fifteen-year-old daughter he has to raise, he has a twenty-year-old step son that's depending on him right now,’ Curtis said.
Now here's the strange twist in the story.
The father of the accused drunk driver became a quadriplegic six years ago, when his tire blew out on a Michigan freeway.
A jury awarded him 16 million dollars against Goodyear for the crash, blaming the blow out on a defective tire.
The father died four days before his son caused that deadly crash.