4 dead, 1 critically injured after wrong-way crash on Detroit-area freeway

(CBS DETROIT) - Four people were killed, and another was critically injured, after a wrong-way crash in Metro Detroit early Sunday, police said.

The incident happened at about 2:50 a.m. on Sunday on southbound I-75 near 11 Mile Road in Royal Oak.

The Detroit Regional Communication Center received calls reporting a wrong-way driver in a black Volkswagen traveling north in the southbound lanes of I-75 before receiving calls reporting that the vehicle had crashed into a Dodge Caravan near 11 Mile Road.

Royal Oak officers responded to the area and discovered the Volkswagen was on fire, and there were multiple victims.

The officer ramped vehicles off to secure the scene and begin investigating.

Police say the at-fault driver, a 29-year-old man from Oak Park, was driving the Volkswagen. He was pronounced dead at the scene.

Three of the four occupants in the Caravan were also pronounced dead at the scene. They were identified as a 34-year-old man from Troy, a 54-year-old man from Mexico and a 71-year-old man from Mexico. One occupant, a 31-year-old Troy woman, was taken to a local hospital with critical injuries. She remains hospitalized and is expected to survive.

The freeway was closed for six hours while police investigated and cleaned up the scene.