MONROE COUNTY, Mich. (WXYZ) — Two separate accidents slowed traffic on northbound I-75 Tuesday morning in Monroe County. Although it’s under investigation, 7 News Detroit learned the second crash may have been influenced by the first.
The driver of a semi-truck called 911 around 7 a.m. in agony.
He told the dispatcher, "I’m in a crash. I crashed my semi. I crashed my semi!”
It's unclear what caused the accident, but authorities said the steel rods he was hauling punctured his cabin and pushed his seat forward and up. He was pinned to the ceiling.
The driver was only able to tell dispatchers he was on I-75, and it appears he hung up on two occasions.
7 News Detroit spoke with another semi-driver, Terry Jamieson, who noticed something wasn't right on the side of the road.
Jamieson described, “As I drove by, I yelled out my window at him, 'Hey man, are you OK?'”
“As I got closer, I could see that his steel bars that he’s hauling got shoved through which means he, at one point, had slammed on his brakes so hard that his load broke loose," he said.
"I’ve personally hauled that. I did two years of hauling steel. That is a scary situation knowing that those back there because.. nothing’s gonna stop them," he explained.
Jamieson called 911 and helped dispatchers direct emergency crews to the crash right where I-75 splits off to 275.
The dispatcher asked Jamieson, "He did answer you when you went by, uh, yelled in?"
He replied, "Yeah, I heard him yell something and I saw his arm move."
"Ok, we got 'em on the way. Thank you so much," the dispatcher said.
Jamieson replied, "No problem. Thank you."
Oddly enough, less than a half mile away, there had been an unrelated fatal motorcycle crash slowing down traffic.
He said, “What I don’t understand is when she asked me where it was and didn’t know anything about it, there was multiple vehicles that drove by that looked right at it and didn’t say anything. I instantly was like, 'Ok, we gotta call 911.'”
As emergency crews made their way to the scene, the injured driver called 911 again and asked them to pray with him.
A dispatcher consoled him.
She said, “Try not to think about it. I know it’s difficult to do so, but I don’t want you to move. I don’t want you to cause more pain to yourself, ok?”
The Frenchtown Township fire chief tells 7 News Detroit crews used the jaws of life to cut the driver from the vehicle, and he was flown to St. Joe Hospital with serious injuries. He is expected to survive.
The Toledo-based company he drove for said it had no comment.
