Local towing facility has several vehicles involved in US-23 cra - ABC 12 – WJRT – Flint, MI

(02/01/13) - A pile up on US-23 in Genesee County's Mundy Township forced the closure of both directions of traffic for several hours Thursday.

The collisions left 12 people hurt and dozens of cars littering the freeway.

Fortunately, nobody was seriously hurt, but drivers involved in the pile up say when it all started, they feared for their lives.

Several cars and trucks involved in Thursday's collisions were taken to Woody's Towing in Tyrone Township. There are six cars, a semi and a snowmobile trailer there.

Some of the people involved in Thursday's traffic mess came there to get their personal belongings out of their cars.

Dale Link of Genesee Township and his wife were headed for Florida when they ran into white out conditions. Then they saw, in the haze, brake lights and emergency flashers ahead on southbound US-23.

"You couldn't see 20-30 feet in front of you," he said.

Link slowed to about 45 miles an hour and thought he would be able to steer around the wreckage, but his 4-month-old Chevy Traverse was hit three times.

"I thought I was going to be able to stop until I got hit in the back end. And then I got turned sideways into a semi," he said.

Link and his wife weren't seriously hurt, but the car, which was loaded with luggage for the trip to Florida, was totaled. Soon, police officers and other first responders were on the scene.

"They were right there quick. I don't know how many I had stop by to see if we were alright," Link said.

Bill Wood, owner of Woody's Towing says Thursday was one of the worst messes he has seen on the expressway.

"There were cars and trucks every which way. The good part is most of the people were OK," he said.

Link hopes to rent or buy a car and continue his trip to Florida next week. He says On-Star contacted him immediately after the crash because his air bag had deployed.