The driver of a semitruck involved in a late night crash on Saturday that killed four people and left 17 injured remained hospitalized Monday with serious injuries.
The crash closed part of Interstate 96 for more than a day. The crash occurred around 11:40 p.m. Saturday in Webberville, a village about 26 miles from Lansing. Michigan State Police had just reopened Interstate 96, which had been closed while DTE Energy crews strung power lines across the roadway, police said in a statement on X.
Numerous vehicles were stopped on the roadway when police say a westbound tractor-trailer crashed into multiple vehicles. Police said it appeared the truck driver did not see the stopped vehicles and could not stop before slamming into them.
The crash caused the truck and multiple vehicles to burst into flames. Police said about 15 vehicles were involved in the crash.
Seventeen people were transported to local hospitals with serious injuries.
Two people, including the unidentified truck driver, remained hospitalized Monday, police said. WJBK in Detroit reported that the truck driver had been admitted to the burn unit at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. A police department spokesman would not share the identity of the driver, citing department policy, but said he was a 57-year-old from Dunmore, Pennsylvania.
Nine people were treated at McLaren Greater Lansing Hospital and released, a spokesperson told FreightWaves. A University of Michigan Hospital spokesperson said they had no information to share about those injured.
The names of those killed were not released by police. A 29-year-old man from Carson City, Michigan, who was driving a Ford F-150 pickup died, as did family members in a Chevy Trax, including a 20-year-old woman, a 43-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man, all from Lansing.
An overpass was temporarily closed while the Michigan Department of Transportation inspected the bridge’s safety.
No additional details were released.