TOWN OF TONAWANDA: I-290 crash victims identified

Local News

September 30, 2008

Staff Reports The Lockport Union-Sun %26 Journal Tue Sep 30, 2008, 01:53 AM EDT

TOWN OF TONAWANDA — Police have identified the two people killed after a car heading the wrong way collided with another vehicle in the eastbound lane of I-290 early Sunday morning.

Justin L. Martin, 30, of Maryvale Drive, Cheektowaga, and Debra L. Richards, 38, of Youngstown, were killed when their cars met head-on. Autopsies were scheduled for Monday at Erie County Medical Center. Four others were injured in what eventually was a six-car pile up.

Police closed down a section of the highway eastbound from Elmwood Avenue to Niagara Falls Boulevard for several hours following the wreck.

According to friends, Richards was on her way to pick up her fiancé at work when her car was struck. The couple was planning to get married at the Ontario House, where Richards worked for 16 years, this weekend.

Martin graduated from Kenmore’s St. Joseph’s Collegiate Institute in 1996 and worked as a customer service supervisor at Geico insurance company. His friends have already started a tribute group on the Facebook Web site, describing him as “smart, funny, talented and kind.”

Foggy conditions were cited as a possible contributing factor to the crash, but the fact that Martin had a 2003 conviction of driving while ability impaired by alcohol has raised other questions about why the man possibly drove the wrong way all the way from Millersport Highway.

While alcohol use is always an avenue to be explored in a situation like this, Lt. Nick Bado said there is no evidence one way or another at this point.

“The toxicology reports probably won’t be available for a few weeks,” Bado said.

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