Four people are dead after a semitruck crashed into more than a dozen vehicles in an overnight incident, according to state police.
A section of Interstate 96 in southeast Michigan was closed on late Saturday while utility workers were servicing power lines in the area. Around that time, the truck was traveling in the westbound lane on I-96 and apparently did not anticipate traffic being stopped near the worksite.
That's when the semi smashed into the other vehicles.
"It appears the driver of the semi-truck did not see the backup and could not stop his vehicle in time," Michigan State Police said in an X statement.
Police said that more than a dozen vehicles were involved in the crash, and that some — including the semi — caught fire after the impact.
According to police, 17 people were hospitalized due to the incident, and four died. The driver of the semitruck survived and was taken to a local hospital for treatment.
MSP said that the victims were a 29-year-old man from Carson City driving in a truck, and a family of three relatives from Lansing driving a Chevy Trax. The Lansing family members were identified as a 20-year-old woman, a 43-year-old woman, and a 47-year-old man. Police did not specify how the three were related.
Cleanup at the site continued into Sunday.
DTE Energy spokesperson Colleen Rosso explained to The Detroit News why the power crews were on I-96 prior to the incident.
"If we're going to do something like that on the expressway, we're going to do that when it's the least amount of traffic on the expressway because it has to be shut down both for the safety of people traveling and the safety of our crews so we work with the Michigan State Police on that and try to determine the time it will cause the least amount of inconvenience," she said.
Police said that I-96 west at M-52 would stay closed until their investigation is complete, and the northbound and south lanes at M-52 will be closed at the I-96 overpass until the Michigan Department of Transportation inspects the crossing.
