Woman takes wrong turn, ends up in parking lot

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A 50-year-old Clare woman drove straight through the curve in a US-127 business loop off-ramp, driving 200 or more feet off road before going air born and landing on top of several cars parked in the lot at Central Michigan University’s Global Campus office north of Mt. Pleasant Wednesday morning.

Laurie Brownell was driving a GMC Envoy south on the business loop, exiting the expressway when she hit a street sign and drove into a grassy right-of-way about 50 feet from the CMU Global Campus building, said Isabella County Sheriff’s Deputy Mike Hosking.

The Envoy sped through an outdoor seating area, hit one of five or six picnic tables in the area, and kept going before striking a Cobalt.

The Cobalt, a much smaller vehicle, acted as a ramp, sending the Envoy air born, Hosking said.


Brownell landed, tires down, on top of two parked cars about 200 feet from where she initially went off road. In all, eight cars, including the Envoy were damaged in the crash.

Brownell was alert and conscious, but taken to McCLaren Central Michigan. No one else was injured. What caused her to leave the road has not been determined, Hosking said.

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