Police Begin To Piece Together Causes Of Massive I-94 Pileup
KALAMAZOO (WWJ/AP) -- An investigation is underway into a nearly 200 vehicle crash on I-94 near Kalamazoo and Battle Creek that left a truck driver dead and dozens injured last Friday.
Michigan State Police Lt. Dale Hinz said it appeared that some drivers were going too fast for the weather conditions, but that it's too early to know whether there will be any tickets or charges.
"It was reduced visibility because the heavy snow and the extreme cold that we were experiencing at the time on Friday," Hinz said. "Definitely the extreme weather conditions as well as the roadway conditions are going to be contributing factors into this crash."
About 20 of the vehicles were burned beyond recognition, leaving investigators without valuable pieces of evidence. Police are reviewing phone videos on social media that were shot by drivers and show a steady progression of vehicles sliding into to the semis and cars already stopped in the road.
"A team of recontructionists are currently using their technology, which involves GPS in tracking the coordinates of the exact locations of those vehicles as they came to a final rest," Hinz said. "They are recharting that on complex computer programs which will allow us to reconstruct the sequence of events as this crash unfolded."
Hintz is asking anyone with stills or video of the crash scene to come forward.
A truck carrying fireworks caught fire, triggering a spectacular explosion of the cargo. A 57-year-old truck driver from Ottawa, Canada, was killed and about two dozen people were taken to hospitals — including two firefighters who were injured while attempting to extinguish fires from vehicles.
The freeway was fully reopened two days later after all of the debris was cleared.
Nick Schrippa, a spokesman for the Michigan Department of Transportation, tried to describe the scene at its most hectic point.
"It is not really possible to put it into words," Schrippa said. "When you see a pile of vehicles — jackknifed semis, cars that are burned to unrecognizable hulks of metal — it's hard to explain. It was gut-wrenching, it's not something you ever want to see anywhere."
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Massive Pileup Crash Involving Truck Hauling Fireworks Shuts Down I-94 [VIDEO]
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