Pickup Truck

The family and friends of a 55-year-old Buchanan man are mourning his loss this week after an ice fishing accident in Michigan. Services are scheduled Wednesday for Donald A. Molica, who died late Friday afternoon following the accident. The accident happened on Clear Lake in Fabius, Mich. That’s north of Michigan 60 and just west of the town of Three Rivers in St. Joseph County. Molica was unloading his fishing shanty from his pickup truck about 4:50 p.m. when it fell, striking him in the head.

NILES — Michigan State Police in Niles are continuing to investigate an incident Friday involving a 9-year-old girl who was approached by the driver of a pickup truck. Police said the girl was standing at the end of her driveway in the 31000 block of U. S. 12 East, just east of Gumwood Road, shortly after 7:30 a.m. when the older model, rusty, two-door pickup occupied by a lone man, described only as having a tan, pulled up next to her. The girl became frightened, police said, and ran back to her home.

MISHAWAKA — Police say a man who crashed into a moving train Thursday night had been drinking beer, although they aren’t sure how much. Apparently, the 42-year-old driver wasn’t too sure either. "Too damn many," was the reply he gave, according to a police report written Thursday night, after Mishawaka police pulled him from his pickup truck. Police say Gerald Mortz had been headed north on Logan Street at 9 p.m. when he slid on the slippery road, crashed through a crossing arm and struck the front of a Norfolk Southern locomotive pulling 120 fully loaded cars that stretched for more than a mile.

A 59-year-old man was airlifted to Bronson Methodist Hospital in Kalamazoo late Saturday night after police found him unresponsive, partially lying in frigid creek water off 26th avenue in Bangor Township. The Van Buren County Sheriff’s Department was called to the 59000 block of 26th Avenue at 10:30 p.m. Saturday. There, deputies found the unresponsive man, near his pickup truck that had crashed into a ravine. The man was first treated at South Haven Community Hospital for head trauma and exposure to extreme cold temperatures and water.