GALESBURG, Mich. (WZZM) -- One year ago, a massive series of crashes near Climax, between Kalamazoo and Battle Creek, left more than a quarter mile of wreckage on I-94. It resulted in a total shutdown of the highway for two days.
It happened the morning of January 9, 2015, in white-out conditions. A tractor trailer heading east collided with a smaller work truck. It set off a chain-reaction crash on both sides of the highway. There were 193 vehicles involved.
"I mean, every time I get to the area, I think about it. I think about the crash," said Trooper Jim Gochanour, who was first on the scene. "Before I even got a few steps out of my car, somebody said there is a fatality."
There was also a semi leaking fuel.
Gochanour says a driver quickly came to him with more bad news.
"I don't even know how he knew this, but he said there was fireworks. There is a truck and he said, 'There's 40,000 lbs. of fireworks, right near the fire!'"
The fireworks' explosions soon followed, and people dove for cover. The fireworks continued to go off throughout the day, and drivers were evacuated to a nearby church.
Ryan Harter had a trailer full of cattle stranded on the highway. He doesn't believe any of them were hurt. He was able to safely come to a stop.
"At the time of the accident, it was a white-out," Harter said. "I couldn't see 20 feet in front of me. Everybody was running around making sure everyone was okay. I watched it happen. It's nothing I've ever seen in 15 years of driving."
"What amazes me is that only one person was killed," said Alan Oosterbaan, a commercial vehicle officer with the Michigan State Police. "And you see all the videos that people took and how fast people were hitting other vehicles."
It took investigators over a month to go through all the reports and pictures from the scene. They ultimately determined that although the weather conditions were a factor in the pile-up, driver error was primarily to blame. Sixty-three people received tickets for driving too fast for conditions.
Michigan State Police hope the pile-up serves as a reminder to drivers to slow down and keep their distance when conditions are bad.
