A 23-year-old Stockbridge woman who was talking on her cell phone with her boyfriend when her car crashed into a water- and ice-filled drainage ditch along M-36 was located and air-lifted to the hospital after he called 911.
According to a release from the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office, deputies were dispatched to the Putnam Township area on the report of a single-vehicle crash at about 2 a.m. Saturday, March 12. The 911 caller from Oakland County reported that he was on the phone with his girlfriend when it sounded like she had crashed and became unresponsive.
After thoroughly searching the area, at about 3 a.m. deputies located the vehicle and driver; she had crashed on M-36 near Barton Road in Unadilla Township.
The preliminary investigation shows that the woman, the only person in the car, was eastbound on M-36 in a 2015 Chevrolet Cruze when she failed to negotiate a curve and crashed into a water and ice-filled drainage ditch below the roadway, which made it difficult to locate her.
After what the release described as a “significant extrication,” the driver was airlifted to the University of Michigan Medical Center in Ann Arbor by Survival Flight with life-threatening injuries. Speed and alcohol appear to be factors in the crash.
Deputies were assisted at the scene by personnel from Unadilla Fire, Putnam Fire, Livingston County EMS, Pinckney Police and Michigan State Police. This incident remains under investigation by the Livingston County Sheriff’s Office Traffic Safety Bureau.
