Austin Kopac was 19 years old and driving down a dark stretch of Deckerville Road when a quick decision turned catastrophic. Around 1:30 a.m. on Saturday, September 5, 2026, the Millington teenager pulled his 2018 Dodge Charger into the opposite lane near Plain Road in Ellington Township, attempting to pass a 2002 Chevrolet Silverado ahead of him. He never made it around.
Instead, the Charger clipped the Silverado mid-maneuver and slammed head-on into an oncoming 2020 Chevrolet Equinox. The impact locked the three vehicles together on the rural roadway, and within seconds, Kopac’s car burst into flames. First responders rushed to the scene, but there was nothing they could do for the young driver. Kopac died right there on the pavement alongside a 16-year-old passenger sitting inside his car.
Friends and neighbors in Millington are now left trying to process how a late-night drive turned into an overwhelming tragedy. Kopac was at an age where most young men are just starting to figure out work, life, and what comes next. Instead, his family is dealing with a sudden void that simple words cannot fix.
The crash didn’t stop with the two fatalities. Inside Kopac’s Charger, two other young men—a 19-year-old and an 18-year-old, both from Clio—suffered severe, life-threatening injuries. Paramedics pulled them from the wreckage and rushed them straight to regional hospitals, where medical staff spent the morning working to keep them alive.
In the other vehicles, the toll kept mounting. The 19-year-old Deford man driving the Silverado sustained life-threatening injuries, while his 19-year-old passenger from Croswell walked away with less severe wounds. Meanwhile, the driver of the Equinox, a 19-year-old woman from Sandusky who was just traveling down her lane when the Charger appeared in front of her, was also rushed to the emergency room with critical injuries.
Crews from the Tuscola County Sheriff’s Office, Kingston Police, Caro Police, Caro Fire Department, and MMR ambulance services all converged on Deckerville Road to help extract victims and secure the scene. Troopers from the Michigan State Police Caro Post took over the primary investigation, measuring skid marks and clearing twisted metal until long after daybreak.
For the families involved, the investigation details are just background noise to a sudden night of chaos. State troopers say they are still checking into whether speed or alcohol played a role in the crash, but for those who knew Austin Kopac, the reality has already settled in. A young life ended on a quiet township road, leaving a small town grieving two dead teenagers and praying for five others fighting to recover.
Leave a Reply