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Antigo Students Warned 30 Minutes Before Deadly Crash Submitted: 06/01/2012
ANTIGO - New details are emerging about the crash that killed two Antigo High School students and injured four other people.

"Yes, I've got a dark car that just ran a stop sign and hit another car," says the caller who reported the crash.

The 911 call reporting the crash that killed two Antigo students wasn't the first Monday. Earlier in the evening a woman called Langlade County dispatch to report a reckless driver.



"... weaving in and out of traffic, and they're just flying. They're doing like 40 miles per hour in a 25 right now. They pulled away, they made it from the stop light, they're all the way up to Citgo already. They come flying out of Walmart parking lot, and they were like on two wheels when they come around on the parking lot," says the caller reporting reckless driving.

"We had a deputy that went to the residence, located the vehicle parked in front of the residence, and the vehicle was unoccupied. The deputy then went to the door and asked for the owner of the vehicle and spoke to that person regarding the traffic complaint we received," says Sheriff Greening.

This warning, Sheriff Greening says, came just 30 to 35 minutes before the crash that killed the driver, Jeffrey Smith, and passenger Jacob Arrowood just a week before graduation. Sheriff Greening says he didn't think the Deputy who delivered the warning detected any alcohol impairment. But what role did seatbelts play?

"We do know that several people had seat belts on and because of the significance of the crash were ultimately still ejected from the vehicle. Some we do believe did not have seat belts on, and they were ejected," says State Trooper Lloyd Vollmar.

State Troopers say the only passenger left in the vehicle was wearing a seat belt, but was still injured. He can't tell us if the Smith or Arrowood were wearing them yet because they're still investigating. But we can tell you two passengers were cited in the past for seat belt violations, including one who died in the crash.

This tragedy happened one week after Antigo High School hosted a mock crash to teach students the dangers of unsafe driving.

"Unfortunately I don't think... certainly for some it has impact. But I don't think as a whole overall it effects the entire class the way we would hope it would," says Sheriff Greening.

Toxicology results aren't expected for a for a few weeks.

Sheriff Greening says graduation is a time to celebrate, but he hopes parents and students will think about safety now while they're celebrating.


Story By: Lyndsey Stemm

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