Detroit, Michigan: Child Killed in Davison Freeway Halloween Crash Near I-75, Five Others Hurt

A child died and five other people were hurt in a three vehicle crash on the Davison Freeway near Interstate 75 in Detroit late on Halloween night, Michigan State Police said on Sunday.

The crash happened at about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday, October 31, on the westbound side of the freeway. A child riding in one of the cars was ejected, taken to a hospital by Highland Park police, and died there, state police said.

What state police say happened

Michigan State Police laid out the sequence in a statement posted on social media on Sunday, November 1, and the Detroit Free Press reported the account the same day.

The three vehicles were all headed west on the Davison Freeway near I-75 when the driver of a Chevrolet Impala rear-ended another vehicle, police said. That impact caused a driver to lose control and hit a third vehicle, turning a single rear-end collision into a three vehicle crash in the westbound lanes.

Police said six people were in the Impala. The child was ejected from the car during the crash. Highland Park police took the child to a hospital, where the child died. The other five people in the Impala, including its driver, were injured. The first reports did not describe injuries among the people in the other two vehicles.

The charge

State police said the driver of the Impala was charged with operating while intoxicated causing a death. The charge was included in the same Sunday statement that described the crash and the child's death.

Police did not release the driver's name in the reports published on Sunday, and they did not release the name or the age of the child who died. This report does not name either of them, because officials have not released those details and the first local reports did not carry them.

One of several overnight freeway crashes

WXYZ Channel 7 in Detroit also reported the Davison Freeway crash on Sunday, describing it as the first of several crashes on metro Detroit freeways overnight in which a child was killed and other people were hurt. WXYZ put the Davison crash at about 11:45 p.m. on Saturday on the westbound freeway near I-75, matching the time and place in the state police account.

What is not known yet

State police said further details were not immediately available on Sunday. The reports did not say how the Impala came to rear-end the vehicle ahead of it, how fast the cars were traveling, or whether anyone in the other two vehicles was hurt. They also did not give the conditions of the five injured people from the Impala, or say which hospital treated them.

What is confirmed is narrow and serious. A three vehicle crash on a Detroit freeway on Halloween night killed a child, injured five other people in the same car, and left its driver facing a charge of operating while intoxicated causing a death. State police said the story may be updated as more details are released.