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January 1, 1999100 cars crash in whiteout on I-75One killed, at least 41 injured in pileup that closes highway for eight hours
The Associated Press and DAN SANDERSON Record-Eagle staff writer GRAYLING - A chain-reaction collision in whiteout conditions Thursday afternoon killed one people, injured at least 41 others and left close to 100 cars piled up on or scattered along Interstate Highway 75 in Crawford County, closing the northbound lane for nearly eight hours. The accident happened a few minutes before noon in heavy traffic about four miles north of the exit to Hartwick Pines on I-75, as motorists headed north for the long New Year’s holiday weekend, Beaver Creek Fire Chief Ed Holtcamp said.
A jackknifed semi was at the head of the crash on the left side ditch off the interstate. Cars were stacked on top of each other, and other vehicles as well as snowmobiles were strewn across the area, which covered several hundred yards. "It was like somebody pulled a curtain down; you went from clear conditions to whiteout conditions just that quick," county emergency management spokesman Dennis Long said. "Before any-body could alert oncoming motorists, 50 cars had piled into each other."
Trooper Tom Dunnenbeck from the Michigan State Police Gaylord Post estimated that there were more than 100 vehicles in the accident, some of which were able to drive away. "Anybody we could get out of there, we did," Dunnenbeck said. People in the accident were taken to the Frederic Elementary School and the Frederic Township Hall, where emergency treatment stations were set up. People that needed further treatment were then taken to the Grayling Mercy Hospital and Otsego Memorial Hospital in Gaylord. Sgt. Randy Fairbanks of the Michigan State Police Gaylord post said 24 people were taken to the Gaylord hospital and 15 were transported to the hospital in Grayling. The crash left 150 other motorists stranded, Long said. The Crawford County Transportation Authority brought buses to the interstate to transport people and to offer shelter from the cold. To alleviate traffic, the Crawford County Road Commission set up a detour before the exit to Hartwick Pines in Crawford County. The cars were detoured to the exit to Waters in Otsego County, where they were able to get back on the highway. Fairbanks said at least a dozen people came to the Gaylord post to file accident reports. State Police in Gaylord reopened the interstate at 7:40 p.m., nearly eight hours after the accident, which rattled at least a hundred motorists. Tim MacDonald of Holt, who was traveling with his wife and son to Indian River, had the back tire of his truck flattened after another vehicle "rammed my snowmobile trailer right under my truck," he said Elaine Lockitski of Oakland County’s White Lake Township was heading to Gaylord with her husband to meet relatives and go snowmobiling when the accident occurred. She said the whiteout came on suddenly and didn’t last long. "I could see in the distance it was getting really fuzzy. I told my husband to slow down. Then all of a sudden, all we saw was red lights," she said. They managed to slow down fast enough to stop before hitting the pickup in front of them. "All of a sudden my husband said, ‘Oh my God, hold on!"’ The vehicle behind them crashed into their pickup, setting off the airbags. Her husband yelled, "Get out of the truck!" They jumped out and ran off. Lockitski said that immediately after the crash, it "went silent. And then in the distance you could hear ‘bam, bam, bam.’ It was never ending. ... And then we started hearing all the si-rens." Sally Cousino of Temperance said she saw one car "that had its roof snapped off like a tin can." The car Cousino was driving sustained minor damage. She said she couldn’t stop in time, but managed to slide between two cars, bumping one. "It was so quick, what could you do? We really got lucky," she said. Grayling Chief of Police Peter Stephan attributed the fatal accident to people likely driving fast in the mixed weather - whiteout snow conditions one minute, sun the next. "It’s doing everything you can imagine," Stephan said. "Periods of whiteout up there this morning. Probably some blankouts in people’s brains. We’ve got cars on top of other cars up there." Holtcamp, whose fire department is based just south of the accident scene, said ambulances from three counties pitched in to move injured motorists. "The number of cars is extravagant," he said. "There’s heavy rescue involved. "It’s a mess." |
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