Yesterday, an early morning crash on I-75 in Monroe, Michigan, left a semi-truck driver trapped in a terrifying situation. Heavy steel rods he was hauling broke loose and impaled his truck cabin, pinning him against the ceiling.

Somehow, the injured driver managed to call 911 around 7 a.m., repeatedly telling dispatchers, “I crashed my semi. I crashed my semi!” Due to the severity of his injuries, he struggled to provide his location. He only managed to say he was somewhere on I-75.

Meanwhile, Terry Jamieson, another truck driver passing by, noticed something wasn’t right. “As I drove by, I yelled out my window, ‘Hey man, are you OK?’” Jamieson told WXYZ. He saw the steel rods jutting through the cabin. “I could see that his steel bars had shoved through, which means he slammed on his brakes hard enough to break his load loose.” 

Jamieson spent two years hauling steel himself. He explained that heavy steel rods, often weighing thousands of pounds, can become dangerous missiles drivers fear constantly.

Trucking companies typically load steel rods like those in yesterday’s crash onto flatbeds. They secure the bars with chains, straps, or chocks designed to bear their immense weight.

Drivers check their loads multiple times, but an emergency brake can jar the rods loose, creating a terrifyingly lethal situation for anyone in the cab. Given the truck’s momentum, if rods break through their securements, they can plunge forward into the cabin.

Jamieson called 911 and helped guide emergency crews to the scene, near the I-75/275 split in Monroe, a city on Lake Erie between Toledo and Detroit.

As they worked to locate the crash, the injured driver called 911 again, asking dispatchers to pray with him as he awaited help. A dispatcher gently encouraged him to stay still, saying, “I don’t want you to cause more pain to yourself, ok?”

Rescue crews used the Jaws of Life to free the driver and then airlifted him to the hospital. He should survive, despite serious injuries.

Oddly, the crash occurred less than a half mile from a fatal motorcycle accident that had already slowed traffic that morning. Jamieson noted his disbelief that no one else reported the semi crash sooner, noting multiple vehicles had driven past.