OCEOLA TOWNSHIP, Mich. – Two cars collided just before 11 p.m. Tuesday at Argentine Road and M-59 in Oceola Township, killing five people and critically injuring three more.
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Michigan State Police said one of the vehicles was traveling at a very high rate of speed southbound on Argentine Road and blew through a stop sign at M-59. That vehicle struck a car which was traveling eastbound on M-59.
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One of the vehicle caught fire, and the other vehicle rolled at least one time.
Four people were in each vehicle. A 70-year-old man and a 70-year-old woman, both of Macomb Township, and a 36-year-old woman were passengers in one of the vehicles. The three of them were killed. The driver of that car, who is a 36-year-old man, is in critical condition at the University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor. He was flown to the hospital.
Two passengers who were in the car which allegedly ran the stop sign also were killed. The other two people in that vehicle are in critical condition.
Seven of the eight people have been identified, state police said.
"Emergency responders were on the scene pretty quick. It was pretty chaotic for the first officers who were on the scene,” said state police Lt. Mario Gonzales. "We don’t deal with this amount of fatalities on a regular basis."
One person has not been identified yet due to the serious nature of the injuries, state police said.
"I’ve been doing this job for 27 years and these have occurred many times unfortunately and they all affect us," Gonzales said. "When we become police officers, they don’t take away our feelings."
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