Driver critically injured when runaway trailer strikes car on south side of Ann Arbor

By Cindy Heflin Associate news director

Posted on Thu, Aug 9, 2012 : 11:15 p.m.

A woman was critically injured in a crash Thursday afternoon when a runaway trailer struck her vehicle and pushed it off the ramp from eastbound Interstate 94 at South State Street on the south side of Ann Arbor, firefighters said.

The car ended up on its roof and partially submerged in water along the roadway, Pittsfield Township firefighters said in a press release.

The crash happened about 4:35 Thursday afternoon when an enclosed trailer came lose from the vehicle that had been towing it while traveling south on State Street. The trailer struck the driver’s side door of the car, which was waiting to turn south from the ramp onto State Street and pushed it off the roadway into a creek just south of the ramp, firefighters said.

Bystanders pulled the 49-year-old woman from the vehicle. Huron Valley Ambulance paramedics took her to the University of Michigan Hospital, where she was believed to be in critical condition.

Southbound State Street was reduced to one lane of traffic for about two hours, firefighters said.

The car was leaking gasoline into the creek, firefighters said, so they placed booms in the water to contain the spill and notified the Washtenaw County Drain Commission.

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