U.S. News - Head-on crash kills 3 sorority spring-breakers in Ohio BOWLING GREEN, Ohio -- A wrong-way driver slammed head-on Friday into a car full of sorority sisters who were caravanning to an airport for a spring break trip, killing three of the young women and the other driver. The car carrying the three Alpha Xi Delta members, ages 19 to 21, and two other sorority sisters hit the wrong-way vehicle overnight on a rise in Interstate 75 south of Toledo, just miles from Bowling Green State University, which they all attended. The two survivors were seriously injured. Sixteen sorority sisters were heading to the Detroit airport in different cars as they tried to make a 5:30 a.m. flight to the Dominican Republic, a friend said. Another vehicle carrying five of the students narrowly avoided the wrong-way driver, Ohio state troopers said. I don't think the college girls ever saw it coming. Nothing they could have done to avoid the crash," Wood County Sheriff Mark Wasylyshyn said. The wrong-way driver, Winifred D. Lein, 69, of Perrysburg, Ohio, was traveling alone, authorities said. Investigators are looking into why she was driving on the wrong side of the divided highway. "The college girls apparently did nothing wrong," Wasylyshyn said. 'Tragic news' Killed were Rebekah Blakkolb, 20, a junior from Aurora, Ohio; Christina Goyett, 19, a sophomore from Bay City, Mich., who was studying teacher education; and Sarah Hammond, 21, a junior from Yellow Springs, Ohio, majoring in apparel merchandising, the university said. "We're shocked and deeply saddened by this tragic news," BGSU President Mary Ellen Mazey told The Toledo Blade. Our hearts go out to the families, friends and sorority sisters of these young women. Goyett was excited about her first trip to the Dominican Republic, said Dee Bishop, a family friend in Bay City. She was a graduate of John Glenn High School, where she competed in swimming, and was studying English at Bowling Green. "She was an absolutely wonderful, positive, happy person," Bishop said. She had just visited with her family Thursday at a surprise birthday party for her mother, Robyn, at a Bay City restaurant, and driven back to the campus several hours to the south. Students dropped off flowers and held each other outside the sorority house in Bowling Green, a stately brick building with green shutters. Members of the sorority wouldn't speak to reporters. The injured were identified as Angelica Mormile, 19, a freshman from Garfield Heights, Ohio, and Kayla Somoles, 19, a sophomore from Cleveland. Bowling Green President Mary Ellen Mazey said in a Facebook post that they had serious injuries. Spring break begins Saturday. According to the Toldeo Blade, tapes obtained from the sheriff's office showed at least four motorists called 911 just after 2:10 a.m. to report a car going south in the northbound lanes on I-75. Truckers had reported the wrong-way driver, and a state highway patrol officer had seen her car and begun a pursuit when the crash happened. Lein was cited in 2002 in Toledo Municipal Court for a lane changing violation, according to court records. A message was left at a phone listing for her. The accident recalled a similar tragedy 10 years ago, when six Bowling Green students were killed while returning home from a spring break trip to Florida. The students, all 19, were returning from Panama City, Fla., on March 15, 2002, when their minivan slid into oncoming traffic and was struck by a tractor-trailer. Authorities said severe winds and heavy rain may have contributed to the crash, which happened on Interstate 71 in Kentucky. The sorority sisters' death was the second school tragedy in five days in Ohio. Three students were fatally shot Monday and two others wounded at Chardon High School east of Cleveland. A 17-year-old was charged.