FARMINGTON HILLS (WWJ) - Michigan State Police say a man who was struck and killed by a passing vehicle along I-275 in Farmington Hills was apparently driving erratically before the fatal crash.
Lt. Mike Shaw said police started receiving 911 calls around 4 a.m. Tuesday about a Buick that was driving erratically along southbound I-275 near 8 Mile Road. The driver ultimately struck the median fencing along the left side of the freeway, which left his vehicle partially blocking the left lane.
No less than five minutes later, a Chrysler 300 that was passing by the scene struck the Buick as well as the driver, who for some reason was outside of his vehicle. The Chrysler then went out of control and flipped over on its roof about a quarter-mile down the freeway.
The driver of the Chrysler said he did not see the Buick sitting on the darkened freeway until it was too late.
“There’s no braking, there’s no attempts to swerve around or anything like that so it appears that he hit that vehicle at freeway speed,” Shaw told WWJ’s Ron Dewey. “He actually said that he had sneezed right before the impact of the collision. Naturally, we’ll never be able to prove that. However, anybody that drives this portion of the freeway knows it’s pretty dark there. If the car was sideways with no lights on, it would have been pretty tough to see regardless.”