GRAND RAPIDS, Michigan — Three people are dead after a string of crashes on US-131 in Allegan County on Thursday.
According to the Allegan County Sheriff's Department, around 1 p.m. on southbound US-131 from Martin to Bradley, multiple cars crashed after a pedestrian, who left his car, was hit by a semi-truck, causing at least two more car crashes. One person was pinned in one of those crashes and needed CPR.
Authorities released the names of two of the victims in the first crash, 43-year-old Robert Crim IV from Otsego and 55-year-old Sharon McSawby from Battle Creek.
It's not clear yet if Crim was the pedestrian in the incident. It's also not immediately clear yet why the pedestrian left his vehicle, authorities said Friday that he may have had vehicle trouble but that is still under investigation.
Three other people were injured in one of the chain reaction crashes. That crash happened on US-131, just north of 116th Avenue and involved two semi-trucks and one pick-up truck.
Michigan State Police said, in that crash the driver of the first semi, a 43-year-old Holland man, was slowing down due to the traffic backed up for the deadly crash that happened earlier. The driver of the pick-up, a 46-year-old Caledonia man, was behind the first semi and also started to slow down because of the traffic. The driver of the second semi, a 45-year-old Vermontville, was behind the pick-up, but did not notice the back-up or the pick-up truck slowing down and rear-ended the truck, pushing it into the first semi. The pick-up truck and the second semi went off the road and collided in a ditch.
All three drivers were treated by EMS on the scene. Both semi truck drivers were taken to the hospital, but their injuries were non-life threatening.
The names of the victims in the deadly crash have not yet been released.
The freeway was closed for several hours while crews investigated and cleaned up the scene.
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