Blotter: Police Investigate Near-Fatal Highway Crash

A 64-year-old Highland man who suffered life-threatening injuries after crashing while driving the wrong way on Interstate 96 may have become disoriented after suffering a medical problem, police said.

At around noon Wednesday, deputies with the Livingston County Sheriff’s Department were dispatched to a report of a vehicle traveling east in the westbound lanes of I-96, east of M-59 in Howell Township.

While deputies were responding, additional calls to 911 advised that the vehicle, a maroon 2001 GMC Sonoma pickup, had left the roadway and overturned after striking an embankment on the north side of I-96.

Witnesses said that the vehicle, driven by Thomas McGuire, was earlier seen near the intersection of westbound M-59 and Byron Road driving erratically. McGuire then entered onto westbound I-96 via the exit ramp for M-59.

McGuire was extricated from the vehicle by personnel with the Howell Area Fire Department before being airlifted to University of Michigan Hospital in Ann Arbor by Survival Flight.

McGuire was wearing his seat belt, and drugs and alcohol are not believed to be factors in the crash.

The Livingston County Sheriff’s Department was also assisted at the scene by personnel from Livingston County EMS. The incident remains under investigation by the Sheriff’s Department's Traffic Safety Bureau.