UPDATED: Hartland Woman Recounts Minutes After Vehicle Slams Into Electric Pole

Maggie DeLauder of Hartland heard the crunch of metal against metal from her backyard and knew there had been an accident—something she's seen before on the busy stretch of M-59 that runs in front of her family's 120-year-old farmhouse east of Hacker Road.

Police say an 18-year-old Milford man veered off eastbound M-59 at about 11:30 a.m. Monday and his Ford Taurus flew into an ITC metal power transmission pole 9 feet up, landing with a crumpled hood and windshield, airbags deployed.

DeLauder said she called 911 and found the man pinned inside his car, bleeding from his leg. She and her 12-year-old son, Jeff, grabbed some towels to help stop the bleeding until authorities arrived. There also were two ferrets in the car, and Jeff helped corral one inside, she said.

"I am glad he's OK," said DeLauder, who added the man's mother told her that other than the leg injury, he's stable. "I have to say he probably gave his guardian angel a heart attack. I couldn't imagine if it was one of my kids in that. I think he was really lucky, judging the way he hit the tower."

The man was taken by ambulance to the University of Michigan Hospital, where he needed surgery on his leg, which had been impaled by the parking break, according to Livingston County Sheriff Bob Bezotte.

Bezotte said the accident remains under investigation, but the driver faces possible tickets for open intoxicants and careless driving. Bezotte said the man's blood-alcohol level was zero at the scene and that further blood tests will be done but will take time.

On Tuesday, Bezotte said the driver had been ticketed for minor in possession of alcohol.

The sheriff said it's unclear how fast the Taurus was driving, but the speed limit there is 55 miles per hour. He said if the cause was mechanical, it should quickly become clear from the investigation.

"He was using his safety belt, which helped quite a bit," Bezotte said. "He was very fortunate and very lucky."

DeLauder said ITC officials who later came to the scene told her the pole was bent and a weld broken but it hadn't moved. They told her they would be back for a repair, but it should be OK in the meantime.

"They were amazed at it," she said, adding her husband builds cell towers and he said one of those wouldn't have withstood the impact.

Bezotte said a traditional wood power pole would also have been leveled.

"That's pretty unusual," he said. "Usually, (a crash) severs them in half."

DeLauder said she thinks driving a Taurus helped, noting she survived a head-on collision while driving one, and her car was even drivable afterward. She also said she believes the tower helped save the man.

"I think the saving grace was hitting the tower," she said. "There's boulders in the grass there. I don't know what would have happened had he landed there."

Editor's note: This story was updated Tuesday to add information about a ticket the driver received in connection to the crash.