http://www.freep.com/news...050113.htm




January 13, 2005

BY HUGH McDIARMID JR., CHRIS CHRISTOFF and FRANK WITSIL
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS



Thick fog and speeding motorists combined to create a series of highway crashes near Lansing that killed two people Wednesday and damaged nearly 200 vehicles. More weather-related havoc is expected today in southeast Michigan when flooding could wash out roads and wreck basements across lower Michigan.


A 50-vehicle chain-reaction accident and a slew of smaller crashes closed 12 miles of I-96 between Okemos and Webberville Wednesday. The dense fog slowed efforts to get medical treatment to injured motorists, many of whom wandered around dazed, talking on cell phones and waiting for help.


At least 37 people were injured, police said. Ingham County Sheriff's Lt. Jeffrey Joy described it as a "nightmare." Of the injured, the Sheriff's Office said three were hospitalized in critical condition and six were in serious condition Wednesday night.


The freeway was fully reopened early today.


A 30-year-old man was killed when his vehicle crashed into the rear of a semitrailer. A 14-year-old boy, a passenger in a GMC Envoy, died in a separate wreck.


Nancy and Harold Duckworth were eastbound on I-96 about 3 miles from their home in Fowlerville when they crashed into a string of cars.


"The fog had been bad, but there were places where it broke and there was sunshine," said Nancy Duckworth, 64, who was driving the couple's Grand Marquis. "And just that fast, it was a total whiteout. It was too late."


She said she remembered her husband asking what was happening, then she said, "I'm gonna hit them."


Their car was destroyed and so was the pickup the Grand Marquis hit.


All around them there were signs of the accident's destruction.


A semitrailer was lying on top of a small car. One woman said her car was so damaged that her children would have died if they had been with her.


Nancy Duckworth, a retired nurse, and her husband, a retired psychiatrist, helped out at the scene.


"This is somebody else's blood, not mine," Nancy said, pointing to stains on her red sweater.


Two hours after the initial pileup, ambulances were still picking their way through fog-shrouded wrecks that littered the roadway. Besides the pileup, Joy said, other accidents were caused by fog so dense in some areas that it was nearly impossible to see the road ahead.


One witness, Joy said, reported a semitrailer had rolled over on a car.


The Duckworths, who were not injured but said they were sore after the wreck, were among a group of shaken motorists taken to the Michigan State University Police and Public Safety Department in East Lansing Wednesday evening. There, crash victims were offered coffee, water, sandwiches, pizza and fruit, said Sgt. Florene McGlothian-Taylor. People also could call their families from the center to get rides home, she said.


Throughout the evening, several towing services made trips to and from the affected stretch of interstate.


"It's a disaster," said Jeff Finley, the vice president of Northside Towing in Lansing, as he took calls from drivers on the radio. "It's such a big accident."


Finley said Northside alone dispatched 21 trucks to tow wreckages, some taking two cars at a time.


Thirteen police and fire agencies, including state troopers from as far away as Brighton, rushed to the area, sheriff's officials said. In all, at least 100 officers responded.


Lansing hospitals went into disaster mode.


Sparrow Hospital, where most of the injured were taken, had treated 19 patients by 9 p.m., five of whom had multiple injuries, said community relations manager Angela Artibee. Their injuries ranged from minor to critical. The hospital's emergency room was readied to treat others, she said.


"We're prepared for anything," she said.


It was "absolutely amazing" that more people were not killed, said Ingham County Sheriff Gene Wriggelsworth. He said criminal charges will be filed at some point against more than one of the drivers.


He said as many as 194 vehicles were involved, with 114 in the eastbound lanes of I-96 and between 80 and 100 in the westbound lanes. Roughly 75 were semis.


"This is probably one of the worst accident scenes in ... Ingham County history," Wriggelsworth said. In more than 30 years in law enforcement, "I have never seen an accident like this."


National Weather Service meteorologist Bill Deedler said the fog was created when warm air rushed headlong across Michigan's frozen terrain Wednesday afternoon. The collision of warm and cold condensed the air into fog -- much the same way that warm air rushing into an open freezer is condensed into visible vapor.


Now that the fog is history, there's another uppercut coming. Flooding in the wake of heavy overnight rains and snowmelt is expected today for southeast Michigan, where a warning is in effect for at least one major river. Dozens of counties were under flood watches late Wednesday.


The flood warning was issued for the Clinton River, which is expected to rise about six inches over flood stage by this afternoon. Flood watches are in effect until at least 4 p.m. today for all southeast Michigan counties, according to the National Weather Service office in White Lake Township.


Wayne County Executive Robert Ficano warned people in flood-prone areas to prepare early. "If residents have experienced basement flooding in the past, it would be wise to remove personal property from your basement," he said Wednesday.


The rain is also expected to trigger emergency releases of partially treated sewage into streams, to keep overburdened sewage treatment systems from backing up.


Deedler said that the next burst of rapid-fire weather change should become apparent about noon today when a polar cold front sweeps into the state, stomping on the warm morning air and bringing blustery wind gusts of up to 40 m.p.h. this afternoon.


Low temperatures are to reach the mid-teens tonight. "Then the back roads will become icy again, from all the rain and snowmelt freezing," Deedler predicted. "It'll be winter again."


Friday night's low: 6 degrees.


Contact HUGH McDIARMID Jr. at 248-351-3295 or at mcdiarmid@freepress.com. Staff writers Lori Higgins, Cecil Angel, Dawson Bell and the Associated Press contributed to this report.


geez. drive carefully, will ya!

I'm so glad I work in the same city I live in...this was so scary. The fog was amazing, though...you could actually see it rising from the piles of snow...it looked like dry ice.

I know! I drove to school yesterday afternoon and the fog was so intense. I couldnt see 20 yards ahead of me. I know sometimes, fog can just descend around you with no warning. I bet this is what happened with these victims. Once youre going 80 mph down the highway, its difficult to stop on a dime.
There was a video of this pileup and all you could hear was screeching breaks and thunder and crashes and people screaming. Alot of people drive their cars into dithces and run for their lives. Thats the only way that you have a chance of not getting an 18 wheeler crashed into you.

I'm afraid of everything freezing tonight after the big thaw we've had.

Yeah.Its about 2 get really cold here. I feel sorry for those who live near the Rouge River and Ecorse Creek. Their basements are all flooded and gross.

dreamfactory313 said:

Me too Plus, there is a big flood warning for Westland and I think Dearborn Heights too because of Hines.

The fog here is Philadelphia has been absolutely amazingly thick for the past 3-4 days. If you look up into the sky, you can't even see the tops of buildings. I can't see out of my office window and I'm only 15 floors up. It's not even that cold here either, just dap and foggy. Yuck. We were lucky enough, though, not to have any injuries and fatalities.