Driver killed in chain-reaction crash with camper, gravel hauler

BERRIEN COUNTY, MI — A man was killed in a crash with multiple vehicles including a truck pulling a camper trailer and a semitruck hauling gravel, the Berrien County Sheriff’s Office reports.

At 5:11 a.m. Friday, Dec. 13, police and emergency responders were called to northbound I-196 at Hagar Shore Road for an injury rollover crash involving multiple vehicles.

Police found a semitruck hauling two trailers of gravel was involved, along with a Dodge pickup pulling a camper trailer and a Chevrolet Equinox. Investigators found the driver of the Chevy Equinox unresponsive and pinned in his vehicle.

Crash investigators found the Dodge pickup truck and camper, driven by a North Carolina man, was headed north on I-196 when a vehicle began to pass on the left and swerved toward the truck, causing the driver of the Dodge to make an evasive maneuver to avoid a crash.

The pickup and camper struck a guardrail and jackknifed, sliding to a stop and blocking both lanes of travel. A northbound Chevrolet Equinox, driven by Jimmy Cunningham Jr, 58 of Mishawaka, Indiana, swerved to the left to avoid the truck but struck the Dodge in the front, striking the guardrail and coming to rest on the left shoulder.

Then, a Kenworth semitruck pulling two dump trailers with 160,000 pounds of gravel drove to the left shoulder to avoid the Dodge as its driver attempted to slow down. The semitruck struck the Equinox that was stopped on the shoulder.

The “chain-reaction” crash caused the dump truck to slide toward the median and the rear trailer flipped over, dumping it’s load. The semitruck had just picked up a load of gravel in Niles and was headed to Ludington, police said.

Cunningham was pronounced dead at the scene and taken to the Western Michigan School of Medicine in Kalamazoo for an autopsy, police said.

The vehicle involved in the initial interaction with the Dodge pickup has not been identified and no description was obtained. The Berrien County Sheriff’s Office asks if you were in the crash area and may have observed or witnessed anything to contact Berrien County Public Safety Dispatch at 269-983-3060, or the Berrien County Sheriff’s Detective Bureau at 269-983-7141, Ext. 7224.

The crash remains under investigation. Road conditions and alcohol/drugs are not factors in this crash, police said.

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