One Dead After Wrong-Way Crash In Niles Township

police564-150
police564-150

A Benton Harbor man is dead following a crash in Niles Township early Wednesday morning. The Berrien County Sheriff’s Department says deputies were sent to St. Joseph Valley Parkway shortly before 3 a.m. on a report of an SUV driving north in the southbound lane around mile marker 6. While on their way, they were told of a head-on crash at mile marker 9. Officers from the Berrien Springs-Oronoko Township Police Department and the Berrien County Sheriff’s Department arrived at the scene to find a 29-year-old woman outside of her SUV and refusing medical treatment. They also found the driver of a car who had been thrown from his vehicle in the crash. That driver has been identified as 28-year-old Darnell Johnson of Benton Harbor. He was pronounced dead at the scene. Police say the 29-year-old woman who was driving the SUV was taken to Spectrum Health Lakeland to be treated for her injuries. Police believe she had been drinking prior to the crash, and they will seek charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and causing death.