The Montgomery County Coroner's office has identified the Central State University student killed Tuesday morning when a car ran into a utility pole on North Gettysburg Avenue.

The student is Meshawn Brown, 23, of the 100 block of Knecht Drive in Dayton.

Brown was killed when another student fell asleep while driving and ran into a utility pole, according to Sgt. Whitney Butler of the Dayton police.

Brown was sitting in the front passenger seat of the car when it struck the pole around 8:30 a.m. The rear seat passenger was not wearing a seat belt and flew over the seat striking the man in front of him, Butler said.

All three men in the vehicle were Central State students, according to Butler. Police have not released the names of the driver or the back-seat passenger.

The students were commuters and "were headed back to campus from Dayton" when the accident occurred, said Fran Robinson, Central State spokeswoman.

Police said the compact car had been traveling north on Gettysburg Avenue when it struck the pole on the east side of the road near Second Street. There were no skid marks to indicate the driver tried to break or swerve.

"The back seat passenger became a missile that struck [Brown] from behind, injuring his head and neck," Butler said. "The law doesn't require a seat belt for adults in the back seat, but this is a perfect example of why they should be belted. When this car hit the pole at maybe 40 miles an hour, anything that's not strapped down will continue moving forward at 40 miles an hour."

When officers arrived, they found two men in the car with obvious serious injuries, Butler said. At first they couldn't determine who had been driving, but they eventually realized that a man who had been walking around at the scene had been behind the wheel when the car crashed.

He said the man was somewhat disoriented, but he was able to tell officers he fell asleep while driving and that caused him to lose control and hit the pole. The driver was treated at the scene and later was taken to Miami Valley Hospital.

Butler said the man who had been in the rear seat received injuries that did not appear to be life-threatening, but Miami Valley Hospital officials did not release his condition. Butler said Brown died at the hospital.

Campus officials were at Miami Valley Hospital with Brown's family during late morning.