| | | BARRY COUNTY, MI — Witnesses say a critically-injured high school–aged girl was airlifted to a hospital in Kalamazoo with severe burns following a fiery two-vehicle accident on M-37 south of Middleville. Jim Barnes described a loud “boom” that he and his wife heard from their home on Shaw Lake Road before running outside to see a Jeep fully engulfed in flames about 12:45 p.m. Sunday. Barnes and other neighbors raced to the accident scene, where he began to try and rescue the trapped girl from the burning vehicle, he said. The girl — whom Barnes said may have been one of three girls riding in the Jeep — apparently had difficulty exiting the burning vehicle because she was strapped in with a seatbelt. Frantic, she eventually wiggled free. With Barnes help, she crawled through the driver’s side window and was pulled to safety. A nurse who happened to be a bystander helped keep the girl from going into shock until emergency medical responders arrived. Police dispatch reports indicated the girl may have burns over 25 percent of her body. Barnes said he recognized the girls as students at Thornapple-Kellogg High School, where his daughter also attends school. Barnes said a pickup truck that may have been driven by an elderly couple appeared to have rear-ended the Jeep at high speed while it was making a turn onto Shaw Lake Road. Both vehicles were northbound on M-37 The truck suffered only front-end damage and the couple were treated on-scene by paramedics, Barnes said. Their condition is unknown. Both vehicles ended up on the right side of M-37 about 50 yards north of the Shaw Lake Road intersection. The Barry County Sheriff’s Department closed M-37 around the accident and called in a medical helicopter that flew the badly burned girl to Bronson Hospital about 1:30 p.m. | |
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