Accident report: Woman was being driven to doctor at time of crash

WEARE TWP. — The 90-year-old Hart woman who died the day after a rollover crash on Monroe Road Tuesday, March 3, was being driven to the doctor in Ludington for “shortness of breath,” according to an Oceana County Sheriff’s Office accident report released Thursday, March 5.

Lorena Catherine VanDenHeuvel, who died Wednesday, March 4, was a passenger in a 2005 Chrysler Town & Country minivan driven by Patricia Ann Cory, 69, of Hart. Cory was traveling west near 72nd Avenue at 11:33 a.m. when she lost control of the minivan on the icy and snowy road. VanDenHeuvel was transported by Oceana EMS to Mercy Health Lakeshore Campus in Shelby where she later died, according to OCSO.

Cory told police that VanDenHeuvel was “hanging upside down in her seatbelt after the vehicle rolled,” and “she told her she couldn’t breathe.” Cory was able to able to get out of the vehicle on her own without assistance from the fire department, the report stated. She was transported to the hospital, but was uninjured in the crash. She was also wearing her seatbelt at the time of the wreck.

The crash investigation is closed, and no citation was issued.