CELL PHONE, MARIJUANA FACTORS IN FATAL CRASH

Police say failing to yield at the stop sign and blinking red light at
Rives Junction Road and M-50 caused the crash in which 17-year-old Justin
Smith died on July 21.

But contributing factors were that he was talking on a cell phone and had
been smoking marijuana within six hours of pulling into the path of an
oncoming empty grain hauler, said the primary investigator of the crash.

James Spink, an officer with the Blackman Township Department of Public
Safety, finished his investigation recently after receiving results from
Smith's toxicology test.

The autopsy revealed 2.6 nanograms per milliliter of blood of the chemical
THC was in Smith's blood when he died.

THC, or tetrahydrocannabinol, is the main ingredient in marijuana. It
causes dry mouth, rapid heartbeat, some loss of coordination and a slower
reaction time in most people, according to Freevibe, a Web site for teens
sponsored by the National Youth Anti-Drug Media Campaign.

The 2.6 nanograms is above a national standard of 1 nanogram, one billionth
of a gram, used by toxicologists to determine if a driver was impaired.

A toxicologist at the Michigan State Police laboratory in Lansing said the
amount of THC found is small, but it does mean Smith was feeling the
effects of the chemical at the time of death.

"Usually 2 nanograms is the cutoff point," Michelle Glinn said. "Anything
below that and it is to hard to pinpoint when the THC entered the system."

The six-hour window is the smallest time frame toxicology figures can
pinpoint in Smith's case, toxicologist Michael Evans said.

Evans, a toxicologist from the laboratory in Indianapolis that conducted
Smith's report, said that any level of THC above 1 nanogram per milliliter
means the effects of THC were present in the brain at the time of death.
Evans works for AIT Laboratories in Indianapolis.

"But as to what role it had in the accident, I have no idea," Evans said.
"I can only give you the medical explanation."

Spink said officers found a fistful-sized amount of marijuana in a plastic
bag, about 10 ounces, in Smith's pocket at the scene as well as a pipe.

Smith, who would have been a senior at Northwest High School, died in an
ambulance en route to Foote Hospital. The semitrailer driver was not injured.

Spink said, based on cell-phone records, Smith called a friend two and a
half minutes before the accident. The friend said the phone suddenly cut
off during the conversation, and he told police he did not hear the accident.

"The phone was broken during the accident," Spink said.

Regardless, the investigation is over, and failing to yield is listed as
the primary factor, Spink said.

Dr. Norbert E. Kaminski, of the Department of Pharmacology and Toxicology
at Michigan State University, said while Smith was definitely feeling the
effects of the drug based on the level of THC, the amount of the effect
isn't easy to figure.

"It's still hard to measure," he said. "Because like alcohol, two different
people can have a blood-alcohol level of .10, but one person can feel the
effects stronger than the other."