A deadly freeway pile up of 150 vehicles occurred this past week in Michigan. The pile up occurred along a snowy section of Interstate-94 between Battle Creek and Galesburg, Michigan early Friday morning. According to authorities, the initial crash was small involving only a few vehicles in the eastbound lanes of traffic. The situation quickly worsened as more vehicles piled up behind the original crash, including a tractor hauling a load of fireworks and another hauling acid.
The pile up caused several vehicles in the crash to catch fire. First responders worked quickly to get the injured to nearby hospitals. Local transit buses moved the uninjured motorist to area warming centers as temperatures at the crash site neared zero. A shelter-in-place order went out for the area surrounding the crash site, as fire crews worked quickly to put out the vehicle fires before the fire reached the fireworks and acid. Crews spent several hours trying to contain the fire. However, the fire ignited much of the 40,000 pounds of fireworks in a tractor causing a colorful explosion as documented by several cell phone cameras.
Law enforcement described the scene as “extremely chaotic”, which left this section of Interstate-94 closed for most of the day. Authorities reported one commercial trucker died in the pile up. To date, there are no further reports of additional fatalities stemming from the crash.
If you or someone you know has been injured in an auto accident, contact an attorney at Abraham, Watkins, Nichols, Agosto, Aziz & Stogner by calling (713) 222-7211 or toll free at 713-222-7211.