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Posted on Sat, Aug 3, 2013 : 8:33 p.m.

Police release name of man who died in crash in restaurant parking lot

By Cindy Heflin

Police have released the name of a 30-year-old man from Shelby Township who died when he lost control of his car and it crashed into vehicles in a Pittsfield Township parking lot Friday night.

car_crash.jpg

The aftermath of the crash in which Byron Frederick Abraham of Shelby Township died Friday night.

Colleen Ramsdell | For AnnArbor.com

Byron Frederick Abraham died after he lost control of his car on Washtenaw Avenue near Carpenter Road and it rolled over onto several cars in the parking lot of the Palm Palace restaurant at 2370 Carpenter Road.

Police said the Abraham's car was traveling east on Washtenaw just east of U.S. 23 about 7:45 p.m. when it drifted off the roadway to the south. The driver lost control, and the car traveled southeast across the northbound U.S. 23 exit ramp to Washtenaw Avenue. The vehicle then went over an embankment and eventually came to rest after striking several unoccupied parked cars at the restaurant.

Abraham was pronounced dead at the scene. Police are waiting for autopsy results to help determine what caused Abraham to lose control of the vehicle, Pittsfield Township Police Chief Gordy Schick said.

Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call Pittsfield Township Police at 734-822- 4911.

The crash is the latest in a string of fatal crashes across Washtenaw County and it was the second in a week in Pittsfield Township.


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Comments

bill110

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 3:08 p.m.

Byron was a good friend of mine. He was a good man and he will be missed by us all. We are all wondering what happened. Please be kind with your comments folks!

BobbyA2

Fri, Aug 9, 2013 : 12:35 p.m.

Have they released information about his funeral yet? Where? When?

Kristen Marie

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 2:26 p.m.

I drove past this shortly after it happened around 8pm...I was trying to figure out why all the emergency vehicles were there. So sad, driving by the next day I could see the tire tracks coming off of the exit ramp. Prayers to the family.

detroit2112

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 5:02 a.m.

Byron was as good of a person that there is out there! You will be missed, my friend! The times watching South Park and listening to Weezer will ALWAYS be in my mind! My thoughts go out to his mother and father! Love ya. homie!!!!

scarmom

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 7:43 p.m.

I know Byron. He was a wonderful young man. He worked in Ann Arbor for several years, so was familiar with driving in the area. Don't have all the details about the circumstances yet, so for those who are thinking of posting any rude comments or conjectures (or already did just to have them deleted), please try to remember that his family and friends are devastated by his loss. If you don't have something nice to say, then please don't say anything at all.

birdygal1

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 7:59 p.m.

Byron was a great guy. He truly will be missed & I'm honored to say I knew him.

Tru2Blu76

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 6:37 p.m.

Very, very sad and unfortunate. I'm wondering if unfamiliarity with driving in the area might have played a role. Checking Google Maps shows that Shelby Twp. is about 63 miles from the location of this accident and that trip takes about 1 hour, 8 minutes. (That's NE of Ann Arbor.) Drivers unfamiliar with driving in that area don't have to be at that intersection. Driving on Washtenaw can be confusing and sometimes stressful to out of town drivers. Traveling East on Washtenaw at leasts suggests Mr.Abraham may have been trying to get back home "at about 7:45 PM." And just pointing out: relatively few freeway exit ramps have traffic signals as the one Mr. Abraham crossed does. He may have missed the on-ramp too, since that would have taken him northbound on 23 to M-14 eastbound (as shown on the Google Maps routing). He may have sped up to "catch the green" at the US 23 exit, hoping to make a turn around and make another pass at the on-ramp leading to northbound US23.

other

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 1:13 a.m.

Tru2Blu76, please stop the speculating. Your comments are the kind that make the comments section ugly. A young man has just died. He had a terrible accident.

Ann English

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 8:10 p.m.

I didn't notice until today that Palm Palace has a driveway on its Washtenaw Avenue side. Only today did I notice just how close the exit ramp from the south is to the Palm Palace. When I get off northbound US-23 onto eastbound Washtenaw, I usually get into the through lane closer to the left-turn lane onto Hogback, so I don't look towards the Palm Palace. Tru2Blu76, in short, I'm more familiar with landmarks and driveways in that area as a result of this accident than I was before. Several cars ahead of me pulling into that driveway to Palm Palace off Washtenaw and a green light on eastbound Washtenaw? Such a situation would call for patience for me if I were going through the Carpenter-Washtenaw intersection in the right lane.

Sam S Smith

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 12:45 p.m.

Special thoughts and prayers for Mr. Abraham, his family and friends!

grimmk

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 10:07 a.m.

Maybe in the near future the car can sense a change of heartbeat and life signs and compensate if the driver passes out or is in need of medical assistance. Then it would be able to stop the car and call for help. Then again it might just think it's better then all of us and refuse to move.

Jake C

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 3:35 p.m.

The technology necessary for such a system is pretty much already available, though not implemented in the way you're suggesting. We already have eye-tracking systems found in high-end luxury vehicles to detect if drivers are dozing at the wheel, which can sound an alarm and help you wake up and get somewhere safe. There's also auto-braking technology that detects if you're approaching an obstacle such as another car too quickly and can apply the brakes for you. Combine that with pulse-measuring monitors built into the steering wheel (such as those found on exercise treadmills or bikes) and you've got a car that could easily stop itself and dial OnStar on your behalf for emergency help. The problem comes from false positives -- anyone who's used a treadmill or exercise bike knows that the heart-rate monitors built into them aren't perfect. So you can wind up with a situation where you're fine, but the car starts braking itself and creates a dangerous situation on the highway. You could build in a fail-safe -- say, an alarm sounds and gives you 4-5 seconds to push an override button. But that's an additional 5 seconds in which you might veer off the road into a tree before the system has a chance to work. So the technology is there, but the engineering implementation is the hard part -- making sure you don't create more problems than you solve. Perhaps a good first step would be to integrate medical-grade heart rate monitors, perhaps built into pacemakers of people with known heart conditions, which can connect by bluetooth or some other wireless technology directly with your car's computer.

grimmk

Mon, Aug 5, 2013 : 6:56 a.m.

Apologies. I thought I deleted it.

microtini

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 3:31 p.m.

Your vision of the future of automotive technology is right on target, grimmk, notwithstanding your inappropriate comment at the end. Remember, someone lost their life here.

Fat Bill

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 3:13 a.m.

I think the investigators are waiting for autopsy results to help determine if the victim perhaps passed out or passed away behind the wheel. If that indeed happened, anything is possible with regard to the path of the vehicle.

Mike

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 3:13 p.m.

That is what I was saying but apparently did not come through that way. Another post mentioned cars compensating for health issues. Possible I guess, but today we have cars that recognize when we change lanes, drive too close to traffic and can compensate for erratic behaviors. That does not change the tragedy that has happened here. My condolences to the family and friends of Mr. Abraham

Mike

Sun, Aug 4, 2013 : 2:27 a.m.

Rest in peace. WASHTENAW COUNTY seems to have dodged a disastrous outcome. Veering off the road than crossing the 23 exit ramp could have caused many more fatalities. Seems that there is still more to come, that parking lot was not even close to where he drifted off of Washtenaw.