On October 18, 2026, a vehicle carrying five Mattawan High School students left the south side of West R Avenue near South Second Street in Texas Township and struck a tree shortly before 3:30 a.m. Aurora Ruckert, 16, and Jordyn Bigham, 15, were pronounced dead at the scene; three other students, ages 15, 16 and 17, were hospitalized. An attorney for one family said the teens may have attended a Western Michigan University fraternity party where alcohol was served, and that criminal and civil liability would be pursued if alcohol led to the crash. Western Michigan University issued a cease-and-desist directive suspending a fraternity's activities while the matter is reviewed, and did not name the fraternity in its statement. The editor identifies the chapter as Phi Sigma Kappa's Chi Tetarton Chapter.