Four people were killed and 17 others injured on November 2, 2024, when a semitruck crashed into stopped traffic on Interstate 96 near Webberville, Michigan, AP reported. The wreck happened shortly before midnight while utility crews were working on power lines and traffic had been temporarily halted.
Michigan State Police said the westbound truck with a trailer reached the backup around 11:45 p.m. and could not stop in time. The impact involved more than a dozen vehicles and sparked fires that engulfed the semitruck and several other cars, turning a traffic slowdown into a mass-casualty scene along a busy highway corridor.
Police identified the dead as a 29-year-old man from Carson City who was driving a Ford pickup and three relatives from Lansing riding in a Chevy Trax: a 20-year-old woman, a 43-year-old woman and a 47-year-old man. AP said the truck driver was among the injured, while all 17 wounded were taken to nearby hospitals.
Authorities continued cleanup efforts on Sunday and said the affected section of I-96 would remain closed indefinitely. That closure reflected the scale of the wreckage and the time needed to clear burned vehicles, damaged debris and any other hazards left behind by the collision.
State police said the driver appeared not to have seen the traffic backup in time to stop the truck. AP did not report any criminal charge or final finding, but the early explanation pointed to visibility and reaction time as the central issues. With power-line work already forcing vehicles to stop, the collision became a reminder of how quickly routine road maintenance can turn dangerous when large commercial vehicles enter a stalled lane at speed.
The crash also carried a stark human cost that went beyond the immediate toll. A family in one vehicle and relatives in another were among the dead, and the injured included the truck driver who had been unable to avoid the pileup. For investigators, the remaining questions were how the backup formed, how it was marked and whether any additional safeguards could have prevented the semi from arriving at a deadly choke point in the dark.
The crash site near Webberville was already a traffic bottleneck because crews had stopped cars for power-line work, leaving drivers waiting in the dark with little room to maneuver. Once the truck hit the backup, the collision cascaded through the line of vehicles, and the fire made recovery even more difficult for first responders trying to separate wreckage from burned metal.
AP said the victims came from Carson City and Lansing, making the crash especially devastating for central Michigan families. Because the interstate remained closed indefinitely, the accident also created a wider transportation headache for the region, showing how a single late-night failure to slow down can quickly turn a maintenance zone into a major emergency.
