Fort Thomas, KY : Driver killed, infant, woman injured in fatal I-275 crash on Monday afternoon, February 22, 2016

Steve Gilliam doesn't know why his brother was driving a car that crashed Monday afternoon.

And he's not sure if his brother was using heroin at the time.

But now his brother is dead, just three weeks shy of his 48th birthday. And the crash that claimed Michael Gilliam's life also left a 7-month-old boy and a woman in extremely critical condition.

All three were ejected when the car rolled several times just after it sped from I-471 onto eastbound I-275.

The child was thrown out of his car seat, which was still secured in the back seat of the wreckage.

“[The infant] was in a car seat belted in. Just the weight and momentum from the car -- it just threw him from the vehicle," said Fort Thomas police Lt. Rich Whitford.

A witness told police the child was thrown 30 feet in the air. When a man picked him up, the boy started crying.

A male passenger who was not ejected was alert at the scene and talking to police. He was in stable condition.

Witnesses said the car was going fast and veered from the middle lane off the shoulder, then rolled several times.

Police believe drugs were involved. Several drug needles were found in the car, officers told WCPO.

Steve Gilliam said his brother, Michael, was the driver who died. Every other time he'd seen him in the car, Michael was in the back seat, he said.

Two hours before the wreck, Michael had stopped by Steve's home in Georgetown, Ohio, to get $150. Michael told his brother the money was to get a car out of an impound lot.

"When I gave him the money, he was in the back seat of the car that was wrecked up there. ... He's never been in the driver seat. That car's been out here three, four times," Steve Gilliam said.

Michael Gilliam struggled with heroin addiction for years, his brother said; he got out of prison one to two years ago after serving time for theft to feed his habit.

"He would stay clean for a while and then start doing it again," Steve Gilliam said. "I can't swear right now -- I'm hoping that whenever the blood toxicology comes back that he wasn't on it —- but I wouldn't stake any amount of money on it that he wasn't on it at the time."

Source :
Rollover crash on I-275 kills driver, leaves infant, woman in critical condition in Fort Thomas