Injured driver runs away after 13-vehicle crash on I-75N in Dayton

PHOTOS: Crash on I-75 N leaves highway shut down

Witness Bill DeFries described the scene before the crash on Friday, when northbound I-75 was gridlocked for a minor crash as he got on the highway after leaving his Keowee Street office in Dayton.

“We were all merging. It was stopped bumper to bumper, 100 feet before Stanley Avenue,” he said.

In the emergency lane, “I just saw this blur of red go by maybe 80 or 90 mph.” Next, DeFries said he “just heard this sound of crashing, then silence.”

Some of the cars hit were overturned, some people trapped inside the wreckage.

“Everyone was dazed…and they're looking around…one gentleman was holding his face which was bleeding,” DeFries said.

DeFries said the driver of the red pickup truck that struck the other cars ran down the Stanley Avenue exit.

A worker at a nearby business said the driver of the pickup truck ran up to him and asked for help.

The man said he caused the crash, and he had scratches and other injuries and was in need of medical attention, the worker said.

Police took the man away, and said he would be charged for the crash and said he shouldn’t have left, the worker said.

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Credit: SEAN CUDAHY / STAFF

Credit: SEAN CUDAHY / STAFF

It is not clear how many people had to go to local hospitals for treatment, but four medics were called for the victims, some of whom were trapped in the wreckage.

According to the Montgomery County Regional Dispatch Center, 13 police cruisers and 10 fire apparatus responded to the scene.

The dispatch center receiving about 30 911 calls.