Icy road causes 100-vehicle pileup in Michigan, causing minor injuries

Ice on Michigan Interstate 196 on Monday caused a 100-vehicle pileup, leaving at least 10 people with minor injuries.

The crash started at 10:19 a.m., the Michigan State Police said on social media, due to ice on the road in Hudsonville, 14 miles southwest of Grand Rapids.

“We believe what happened is that a vehicle struck a semitruck, a tractor-trailer, that then set off a chain reaction,” said Ottawa County Sheriff Eric DeBoer, according to Kalamazoo’s WWMT.

He added that “of the 10 people that have been injured, they’re all minor injuries. … There were no fatalities and no major injuries.”

Motorist Lauren Stansberry told the TV station that “we were driving up, and the cars in front of us started piling up. … They stopped in the middle of the road, we hit them, someone slammed into the side of us, we slammed into someone, so truly, just part of that pileup.”

Ultimately, the crash ballooned to include 100 vehicles, between 30 and 40 of which were semitrucks. Other vehicles at the scene did not get caught in the crash but instead slid off the road, Michigan State Police said. 

The Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office said several of the trucks jackknifed due to the conditions on I-196.

The crash left the highway closed in both directions for about eight hours as crews came to remove vehicles and debris. The highway reopened at around 6 p.m., according to Grand Rapids’ WZZM.