Brimley woman injured in car accident on I-75

NUNDA TOWNSHIP — A woman from the Upper Peninsula was taken to McLaren Northern Michigan Hospital in Petoskey after she sustained serious, non-life threatening injuries when she lost control on the wet roadway of I-75.

At 3:01 p.m. on Tuesday, March 15, the Cheboygan County Sheriff’s Department was dispatched to the area of I-75 near Webb Road, in Nunda Township, for a two-vehicle personal injury accident.

The 76-year-old woman from Brimley was traveling south on I-75, near the 301 mile marker, in Nunda Township. She was driving a 2021 Nissan station wagon on the inside lane, passing a tractor trailer, when she lost control and started hydroplaning. Her vehicle spun around 180 degrees and slid under the trailer of the semi.

“The front of her vehicle was then struck by the rear axle of the trailer,” said Cheboygan County Sheriff Dale Clarmont. “The vehicle was then pushed down the lane for 200 feet before dislodging and coming to rest.”

The driver of the tractor trailer, a 22-year-old man from Gary, Indiana, was able to bring the 2020 International semi to a stop on the shoulder of the roadway.

The station wagon caught fire as a result of the accident, and the driver of the semi was able to put that fire out with the fire extinguisher from his vehicle.

Crews from the Tuscarora Township Fire Department and Wolverine Volunteer Fire Department were able to remove the woman from the vehicle. She had been wearing her seat belt at the time of the crash, and was taken to the hospital in Petoskey by Cheboygan Life Support Systems ambulance, where she was treated for her injuries.

Her husband, a 79-year-old man, also from Brimley, had also been wearing his seat belt at the time of the crash and was not injured.

The driver of the tractor trailer was not injured during the accident. He also had been wearing his seat belt.

The Cheboygan County Sheriff’s deputies were also assisted on the scene by troopers from the Michigan State Police Gaylord Post, conservation officers with the Michigan Department of Natural Resources and Cheboygan Life Support Systems ambulance.

Alcohol was not a factor in this accident. The crash remains under investigation at this time.