NEW DETAILS: Police findings don’t point to alcohol in wrong-way crash

A preliminary finding indicates no evidence of alcohol involved – but does show excessive speed - in the double fatal wrong way crash on I-675 last week.

An investigation into the wreck that killed wrong-way driver Melvin Bonie Jr. of Beavercreek and Kalip Grimm of Miami Twp. shortly before 9:30 p.m. Oct. 16 did not show signs of alcohol being a factor, according to a Centerville police report released this afternoon.

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Autopsy reports from the Montgomery County Coroner’s Office are not complete on Bonie, a 69-year-old retired defense analyst, or Grimm, a 2017 Miamisburg High School graduate. Services for Grimm, who would have turned 19 on Sunday, were this morning.

The Centerville report indicated Bonie’s Lexus going an estimated 80 miles per hour as it headed northeast in the middle lane of southwest bound lanes in the crash that involved four vehicles and six people, records released today show.

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Two 911 callers said they saw a vehicle going the wrong way down the southbound Ohio 48 exit ramp from I-675 minutes before the wreck.

Bonie’s Lexus hit two others – a Toyota Venza driven by 54-year-old Takasi Sibuya of Miamisburg and a Toyota Corolla driven by 20-year-old Maria Perdomo of Centerville – before the fatal crash, Centerville records show.

None of the motorists in the Toyotas – including Venza passenger Tyler Sledge, 22, of Springboro – were hurt, Centerville police officer John Davis said last week.

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Bonie’s SUV then collided head on with the Ford Mustang driven by Grimm, records show. A Mustang passenger, 16-year-old Morgan Sampier of Miamisburg, was treated and released from a local hospital, Davis said last week.

Seven Centerville police units and crews from Sugarcreek Twp., Montgomery County and the Ohio State Patrol responded to the accident, which forced the closure of all southbound lanes from Wilmington Pike to Ohio 48 until about 3:10 a.m., according to Centerville police.

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