One dead, one injured in head-on crash on I-496

LANSING TWP. - Police said they don't know what caused a driver to cross into oncoming traffic Tuesday afternoon on Interstate 496, leading to a head-on crash that killed him and injured the driver of the other vehicle.

Lansing Township police Chief Kay Hoffman said a 66-year-old Kalamazoo man was driving east on the freeway, just east of Waverly Road, about 1:10 p.m. when his vehicle crossed the median and struck a westbound car driven by a 17-year-old Potterville resident.

The westbound car rolled "a couple of times" and ended up in a ditch, Hoffman said. The teenage driver, a boy, was taken to a local hospital with only minor injuries, she said.

The Kalamazoo man was dead at the scene. Police were withholding his name until relatives could be notified, Hoffman said.

Investigators don't know why his car left the eastbound lanes and careened into oncoming traffic, she said.

The westbound lanes were closed for more than three hours while police investigated the crash. One eastbound lane was closed for a time, as well.

Contact Ken Palmer at (517) 377-1032 or kpalmer@lsj.com. Follow him on Twitter @KBPalm_lsj.