GEORGETOWN TWP., MI (WHTC) – The Monday morning commute on westbound I-196 near the Ottawa-Kent county line was bogged down by a crash, the effects of which are lingering.
According to Ottawa County Sheriff’s Sergeant Brian Buter, 20-year-old Nathan Rick of Rockford had slowed his pickup truck west of the 8th Avenue overpass just before 8 AM due to a traffic backup stemming from a wreck ahead. Chad Tulgestke, a 33-year-old resident from Posen, in the northeast corner of the Lower Peninsula, was hauling some landscape timber in his semi and apparently didn’t see the backup ahead.
The rig slammed into the back of Rick’s pickup and then veered into a guardrail. That caused a load of 10-foot-long timber to fall into a gulley near the guardrail. It was left there pending removal by the company Tulgestke was hauling the load for bringing appropriate equipment over to move the heavy wood.
Neither driver was hurt, but westbound traffic was backed up for several miles as a result of the crash, which remains under investigation.
