A dramatic video captured the tail end of a huge pile-up on a Michigan highway over the weekend.
The opening seconds of the footage show cars sliding over the slick pavement and crashing into other vehicles which had already crashed during the heavy winter conditions.
Driver Jim Perreault captured the scene on US-31 near Muskegon, Michigan on December 29, according to footage posted on YouTube.
Warning: Video contains explicit language
While some cars appeared unscathed, others showed serious damage from crashing into other vehicles.
“Ho—whoa,” Perrault says from his car, which was already off the highway. “Holy … there’s five of ’em right there—they’re just missing our front bender here.”
Several of the drivers, steering their cars successfully avoided crashing, but others careened right into other vehicles. “Everything’s getting smashed,” Perreault narrated.
Perreault and his wife estimated around 50 cars were ultimately involved in the pile-up.
Police told Fox17 that the pile-up happened around 1:40 p.m. on southbound U.S. 31 near exit 20, and involved nearly 40 vehicles.
Fifteen officers responded to the crash to help clear the roadway and assist drivers.
“The only thing we can say to people is you’ve got to take it slow,” said Muskegon Township Police Chief David Wypa. “If that means driving 25 miles an hour, then drive 25 miles per hour.”
More than nine inches of snow had fallen in the area on December 29 alone.
Deanna and Ken Leverich and their 4-year-old niece sustained injuries during the pile-up, but were later released from the hospital.
“As soon as I could see [through the whiteout] I saw a bunch of cars and I thought, ‘Why are they all parked on the highway?’ That’s when we tried hitting the breaks and hit some ice and the car hit us, it all happened so fast,” Deanna told Fox17 later in the day after leaving the hospital.
Deanna and Ken Leverich, who were injured during the massive pile-up in Muskegon County, Michigan on December 29, 2017. (GoFundMe)“The truck hit me and as I’m slamming on the brakes, it sent me in kind of a spin and that’s when I hit that electric truck.”
A fundraising page for the couple has been started on GoFundMe with a $10,000 goal to get a new vehicle.
“We were involved in a 20 car pile up and lost our only transportation,” Deanna wrote. “My husband is a cancer patient and we need our vehicle to take him to his treatments. Please help.”
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