By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
THUMB AREA — At 8:52 a.m., Tuesday, the Frankenmuth Police Department responded to a personal-injury accident on Junction Road near Maple Road in Frankenmuth Township.
“The preliminary investigation indicates a 1997 Chrysler driven by an 18-year old Bridgeport woman was traveling eastbound on Junction Road approaching Maple Road when she attempted to pass another eastbound vehicle,” according to the police report. “The passing vehicle lost control during this movement, and left the road on the south side. The vehicle skipped approximately 200 yards and struck a utility pole approximately forty feet off the road.
“The driver was pinned in the vehicle and had to be extricated by the Frankenmuth Fire Department using the ‘jaws of life.’”
First responders from Mobile Medical Response administered medical aid while the extrication took place.
Investigators state the driver was transported to a Saginaw area hospital with serious but non-life threatening injuries.
While the accident was being handled, Junction Road was shut down for about 45 minutes between Maple and Reimer. It was reopened at 9:35 a.m.
The cause of the accident is still under investigation and the case remains open, but initial evidence indicates speed and carelessness were factors.
The name of the driver is being withheld at this time due to the open active investigation.
Mary Drier is a staff writer for the Tuscola County Advertiser.
By Mary Drier
Staff Writer
MICHIGAN — The official start of winter was more than a month away when the first snow of the season arrived over the weekend.
To many, it seems like the record breaking 2013 – 2014 winter just ended when this winter arrived early, and accidents are already being reported.
According to the Tuscola County Central Dispatch log, there were 32 accidents in three days when the first snow fell.
“On Sunday, 22 accidents were reported in the county. Monday there were seven accidents reported. This morning there have been three accidents,” said Dispatch Director Sandra Nielsen at 11:30 a.m., Tuesday. That number could have changed before the day was over.
Although there were nearly three dozen accidents reported in three days Nielsen said she didn’t determine if they were all accident related. “But, most of those there reported as vehicles in the ditch, or driver over correcting.
“Fortunately, none of them were injury accidents.”
Each year a number of accidents are reported during the first snow as drivers adjust to winter driving.
“The best thing to do is to slow down and keep a distance between vehicles,” Nielsen said.