NORTHFIELD TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A massive crash involving a semi truck and two other vehicles shut down U.S. 23 in Northfield Township for hours Wednesday.
Both the northbound and southbound lanes were closed near Six Mile Road as police investigated the crash.
Karl Keranen witnessed the aftermath of the crash and said it's been hard to get the sounds and images out of his head.
"Horrible, horrible crash," Keranen said. "It was almost like a beginning of a thunderstorms where it was rumbling, rumbling, and then some loud crashes."
The crash happened right next to his home along U.S. 23.
"Looking at that crash scene was very devastating," Keranen said. "It was the worst I've ever seen."
Michigan State Police officials said the semi truck was heading north when the driver crashed into a car, took out the guardrail, crossed the median and hit a pickup truck in the southbound lanes.
"My cousins ran out to the expressway," Keranen said.
"We immediately ran over to the fence line and saw some wreckage, so we had jumped the fence right away and went to the first vehicle we had seen," his cousin, Ryan Cleary, said.
Cleary and his brother tried to help in any way they could.
"It was a very horrific scene, and so in that moment, we didn't think much about anything other than jumping the fence and trying to pull that person out of a vehicle," Cleary said.
Now Keranen and Cleary are hoping all the people involved in the crash will be OK. One person was taken to University of Michigan Hospital in critical condition, and another was taken by a Survival Flight helicopter.