INDEPENDENCE TOWNSHIP, Mich. – A teenager on Wednesday crashed into a Michigan State Police patrol car stopped on the shoulder of I-75 in Oakland County just after the officer made an arrest, officials said Thursday.
At around 6 p.m. on Wednesday, Jan. 10, a Michigan State Police trooper conducted a traffic stop on northbound I-75 near Sashabaw Road in Independence Township. Officials say the trooper arrested a driver for impaired driving, and had placed them in the front passenger seat of the patrol car.
The trooper was in the driver’s seat of the patrol car and the arrestee was handcuffed with their seatbelt on when a 16-year-old boy driving a Dodge Durango hit the patrol car. Police said the teen fell asleep at the wheel and drifted onto the right shoulder, crashing into the patrol car and sending the patrol car into the arrestee’s car.
The patrol car was totaled, but the trooper and the arrestee only suffered minor injuries, officials said. It’s believed they both sustained cuts on their faces, and the trooper’s arm might have been broken. They were both taken to the hospital, where the trooper remained as of Thursday morning.
Police did not say whether the 16-year-old was injured in the crash. Officials did say Thursday that he was “apprehended for reckless driving and released to his mother.”
Northbound I-75 was closed at Sashabaw Road on Wednesday due to the crash, but has since reopened to traffic.