A Thursday morning crash on Van Dyke Road in Colfax Township drew a response from the Huron County Sheriff’s Department after two vehicles collided directly in front of Thumb Broadcasting — the radio station that serves much of the Thumb region’s local news and community programming needs.
The crash occurred at 8:15 a.m. on February 26th, right at the start of what should have been a routine morning commute. Instead, two drivers found themselves dealing with disabled vehicles, a police report, and the kind of jarring experience that a rear-end collision brings even when nobody ends up seriously hurt.
What Happened
According to the traffic crash report filed by responding deputies, a 2015 Ford Edge driven by one of Thumb Broadcasting’s employees was stopped in the roadway on Van Dyke Road, waiting to make a left turn into the radio station’s driveway. While the SUV sat stationary with its turn signal on, a 1998 Ford Ranger pickup truck traveling westbound approached from behind.
The driver of the pickup — a 17-year-old male from Sebewaing — told deputies he did not see the stopped SUV ahead of him until it was too late to avoid a collision. The Ranger struck the Edge from behind at what appears to have been enough speed to cause disabling damage to both vehicles.
The female driver of the SUV, from Harbor Beach, reported that she had simply been waiting for a safe gap in traffic to complete her left turn when she was hit from behind. It is one of the more common and frustrating types of crashes on rural roadways — a driver doing everything right, waiting patiently, struck by someone who didn’t see them in time.
Damage, Airbags, and No Injuries
Both vehicles sustained disabling damage and had to be towed from the scene. The Ford Edge was removed by a local towing service, while the pickup truck was towed to a residence on Nugent Road. Neither vehicle was in any condition to be driven away under its own power after the collision.
Despite the severity of the vehicle damage, the outcome for both drivers was as good as it could have been under the circumstances. Both the Harbor Beach woman and the 17-year-old from Sebewaing were wearing their seatbelts at the time of the crash. Airbags deployed in the pickup truck — a detail worth noting, since the deployment of airbags typically indicates a meaningful level of impact force. Yet neither driver reported injuries at the scene, and no ambulance transport was required. That is genuinely fortunate given what the vehicles looked like afterward.
Seatbelt use almost certainly played a role in keeping both drivers uninjured. It is one of those facts that gets stated so routinely it can start to sound like background noise, but a crash serious enough to deploy airbags and disable two vehicles is exactly the kind of situation where a seatbelt does what it is designed to do.
Clear Conditions, Avoidable Crash
One of the more notable details in this report is the weather. Conditions at the time of the crash were clear, and the roadway was dry. There was no fog, no ice, no rain, and no obvious environmental factor that would have impaired visibility or road grip. This was not a crash caused by Michigan’s notoriously difficult winter driving conditions — it was a clear February morning, and a stopped vehicle was simply not seen in time.
That context shaped how law enforcement handled the citation. Deputies cited the pickup truck driver for hazardous action — specifically, being unable to stop within an assured clear distance. That is a legal standard in Michigan that requires drivers to maintain enough following distance and attentiveness to stop safely before reaching any obstacle they should reasonably be able to see. On a clear, dry morning with good visibility, a stopped vehicle with a turn signal activated should fall well within that definition.
For a 17-year-old driver, a citation of this nature carries lessons that go beyond the fine. Early driving experiences, including the ones that go wrong, tend to shape habits in ways that stick. Hopefully this one reinforces the importance of scanning ahead, maintaining safe following distance, and never assuming a road is clear just because it looked that way a few seconds ago.
Response and Assistance
The Huron County Sheriff’s Department handled the primary response and investigation. The Bad Axe Police Department and the Huron County Road Commission both assisted at the scene — a fairly standard multi-agency response for a crash that blocks or disrupts traffic on a main road. Getting the vehicles assessed, the roadway cleared, and the report filed requires coordination, and having additional units on scene helps move that process along efficiently.
Van Dyke Road sees steady traffic in that stretch, and a crash that disables two vehicles in the roadway during the morning commute window creates real disruption for other drivers moving through the area. Getting the scene cleared quickly is as much about traffic management as it is about the drivers involved.
A Reminder About Rural Road Safety
Crashes at driveways and turn points on rural roads are more common than many people realize, and they are almost always preventable. When a driver slows or stops to make a turn on a two-lane road — especially one without a dedicated turn lane — they become temporarily vulnerable to drivers approaching from behind who may not be paying close enough attention or who are traveling at a speed that leaves little margin for error.
This is particularly relevant on roads like Van Dyke, where posted speeds allow for relatively fast travel and the visual landscape can lull drivers into a false sense of predictability. A vehicle stopped in the travel lane to turn left is not unusual — it happens hundreds of times a day on roads like this across the Thumb region — but it requires the drivers behind them to be alert and prepared to stop.
Road safety is a topic with real urgency in this part of Michigan right now. The Putman family’s planned legal action against theHemlock Public School District Posts Nearly Double-Digit Improvement in Attendance Tuscola County Road Commission is rooted in a far more devastating crash — one that killed three family members at an intersection where safety improvements had been repeatedly requested and repeatedly delayed. The situations are very different in scale and severity, but both point to the same underlying truth: roads require constant attention, and the consequences of safety failures fall hardest on the people who are simply trying to get where they are going.
At the county level, the Huron County Board of Commissioners recently addressed road and intersection safety in their February meeting, approving additional signals at six intersections as part of an ongoing effort to improve safety across the county’s road network. Thursday morning’s crash on Van Dyke Road is a reminder of why that work matters.
For Michigan drivers who want to review the state’s rules around assured clear distance and other traffic safety standards, the Michigan Secretary of State’s driver education resources provide a clear overview of the laws governing safe driving behavior on state roads. And for current road condition updates, traffic incidents, and safety alerts across Michigan, Michigan’s MiDrive system offers real-time information for drivers planning their routes.
