Hay-hauling truck causes seven-vehicle pileup on M-24

A seven-vehicle pileup around 1:30 p.m. Sunday near the intersection of M-24 and Ray Road sent four people to the hospital and left the driver who caused it with multiple citations.
A 19-year-old North Branch man was headed south on M-24 at a ‘high rate of speed? in a 1994 Ford stake truck towing a trailer filled with hay bales when he struck two other southbound vehicles in front of him, according to the Oakland County Sheriff’s report.
The impact with these two vehicles caused multiple collisions involving four other vehicles all over the roadway.
As a result, a 59-year-old Frankenmuth man, driving a 2005 Chevy van, and his female passenger, 59, were transported by the Addison Township Fire Department to Lapeer Regional Medical Center.
A 63-year-old Oxford woman, driving a 1990 Oldsmobile, and her female passenger, 54, were transported by the Oxford Fire Department to St. Joseph Mercy Oakland in Pontiac.
The driver who caused the pileup was ticketed by sheriff’s deputies for reckless driving, no insurance, expired license plate, spilling his load on the roadway and having no emergency equipment.
Deputy Mark Mackie said the pileup was caused by a combination of Sunday’s dense fog and the North Branch man’s reckless driving.
Witnesses reported the driver had been dropping hay bales in the roadway ‘from the county line? all the way to the crash scene, the deputy noted.