A massive 100‑vehicle pileup on Interstate 196 in western Michigan shut down a roughly 10‑mile stretch of highway this week, as sudden whiteout conditions turned a routine winter storm into a dangerous chain‑reaction crash, according to USA Today’s report on the incident. Remarkably, authorities say there were no deaths, though around 9–12 people suffered non‑life‑threatening injuries and dozens of drivers had to abandon their vehicles as emergency crews worked for hours to clear the scene.
According to the Ottawa County Sheriff’s Office and Michigan State Police, the crash began shortly after 10:19 a.m. Monday on I‑196 between Hudsonville and Zeeland, about 20–25 miles southwest of Grand Rapids. Initial reports describe cars sliding off the road and into each other as visibility suddenly dropped, followed by 30 to 40 semi‑trucks jackknifing or colliding, eventually involving more than 100 vehicles scattered across both directions of the interstate. The highway was fully closed for much of the day, with some drivers stuck in their vehicles until they could be evacuated to shelters, and both directions later reopening after wreckage was towed away.
Officials and meteorologists say the pileup happened during intense lake‑effect snow, when bands of moisture off Lake Michigan created heavy, blowing snow and wind gusts around 25–40 mph, cutting visibility to a quarter‑mile or less. The National Weather Service office in Grand Rapids had issued warnings earlier in the day about whiteouts and “severe snowy weather,” urging residents to avoid travel as an Arctic air mass pushed across the Great Lakes, and state police later used social media to remind drivers that even relatively low speeds can be too fast when ice, snow and limited visibility combine.