By Judy Reed

A head-on crash on Main Street in Cedar Springs on Tuesday morning may have been caused by a driver that dozed off.

The crash occurred about 10:30 a.m. Tuesday morning, April 9, at the intersection of Main and Cherry Streets. Allan Burns, 55, of Cutlerville, said he was driving his Dodge Caravan north on Main Street when he saw the driver of a white SUV heading southbound begin to drift over into his lane. “I saw her go past the orange cones and then she got closer to the truck (doing work on the east side of the road) and then she came straight for us. Her head was down,” he explained. Burns said he had nowhere to go to get out of the way.

“I hope she’s ok,” he added. 

Sgt. Todd Probst and Deputy Todd Frank, of the Kent County Sheriff’s Office, took statements at the scene. Sgt. Probst said that the crew working outside of the Red Bird Bistro saw her drift over and thought it looked like the driver had dozed off. Police identified her as Cheri Ripley, 42, of Sheridan. She was reportedly on her way to a home health care job. 

The driver of the van said he did not suffer any injuries. The at-fault driver was checked out at the scene by the Cedar Springs Fire Department and Rockford Ambulance. 

Burns, who is originally from Sparta, said he had just went with his father to Premier Towing to clean out his father’s car, and then they were headed to find a place to have a cup of coffee downtown when the crash occurred. “I had just said this car’s been a good car, and then this other car said hi,” he commented. 

Sgt. Probst said that speed was not a factor in the crash, and the construction work on Main Street was not a factor in the incident since it occurred south of the worksite. Ripley was cited for hazardous driving.