Posted on 01/12/2005 9:11:46 PM PST by Dan from Michigan
At least 2 dead in pileups on I-96 near Lansing
1/12/2005, 11:16 p.m. ET
By DAVID EGGERT
The Associated Press
ALAIEDON TOWNSHIP, Mich. (AP) — Two people were killed and at least 37 others were injured in multiple pileups involving about 200 vehicles in thick fog Wednesday afternoon on Interstate 96 east of Lansing, authorities said.
A 14-year-old boy was killed when the sports utility vehicle he was riding in and about 10 other vehicles — including a semi — crashed in the westbound lanes about 3 p.m. EST near Williamston, Ingham County sheriff's officials said. The boy's mother and grandmother were in critical condition Wednesday night, Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth said in a statement.
The other fatal crash happened within about 30 minutes, when an eastbound vehicle driven by an adult male hit a semi truck from behind, Wriggelsworth's statement said.
A total of 114 vehicles were involved in crashes in the eastbound lanes, while between 80 and 100 vehicles were involved in westbound crashes, the sheriff's department said. The rest of the vehicles were involved in minor collisions involving two or three at a time.
At least eighteen people were being treated Wednesday evening at Sparrow Hospital in Lansing, spokesman John Lux said. Five of them had multiple injuries, but Lux did not know how many would be admitted.
Dense fog formed as afternoon temperatures in the Lansing area surpassed 50 degrees, reducing visibility to one-quarter mile at 3 p.m., the National Weather Service said.
"It was crazy," Keena Sioui, a Michigan State University student who witnessed the crashes while riding with her brother, told Detroit television station WXYZ.
"The fog was really bad. You could only see about 20 feet in front of you," Sioui said. "Then we heard three `slams' in back of us, one after the other, and cars just kept hitting. We kept moving forward so we wouldn't get hit."
State police closed a 12-mile stretch of I-96 in both directions between Okemos and Webberville. The interstate was to remain closed in both directions for at least several more hours, Joy said at 7:30 p.m.
Traffic was backed up five miles on eastbound I-96 between Okemos and Lansing as rush hour approached, Joy said.
Fourteen drivers and passengers who escaped injury were bused to the Michigan State campus, where they could wait for relatives or friends to pick them up at a "reunification center," university police said.
Harold and Nancy Duckworth had covered about half of the 25-mile drive from Lansing to their Fowlerville home when their car slammed into a pickup truck and went into a ditch.
Harold Duckworth, a 62-year-old psychologist, suffered a bruised sternum when the car's air bag deployed, but he and his 64-year-old wife — a registered nurse — were able to provide first aid to nearby victims.
"This is someone else's blood, not mine," Nancy Duckworth, wearing a blood-stained red sweater, said at the Michigan State center.
David and Janet Morrow of South Bend, Ind., drove to Michigan State to be reunited with their 25-year-old son, Christopher Morrow of East Lansing, a student at Thomas M. Cooley Law School in Lansing.
The couple said their son called them from a cell phone on I-96 and told them, "I'm standing here in the road and I'm not sure how I got here." They said Christopher Morrow told them his Toyota Celica "folded up like an accordion" when it crashed.
But, said Janet Morrow: "We're very grateful. We could have been coming here for a much worse purpose."
YIKES Dan..........
Your guardian angel must have been working over time today.
My prayers go out to those involved.
bump
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