​On Tuesday, June 7, 2016, about 6:29 p.m. eastern daylight time, a 1996 Chevrolet Silverado 1500 pickup truck operated by a 50-year-old male was traveling northbound on North Westnedge Avenue in Cooper Township, Kalamazoo County, Michigan. Approximately 3 miles north of downtown Kalamazoo, as the pickup truck approached the area of 5333 North Westnedge Avenue, nine bicyclists from a private bicycle club on a planned ride were also traveling northbound in a single file on a 4-foot-wide paved outside shouder. The pickup truck departed the travel lane to the right, entered the outside shoulder, and struck all nine bicyclists. The pickup truck then departed the paved roadway and came to rest across a drainage ditch facing west. The driver fled the scene but responding law enforcement officers later apprehended him. Before the truck struck the bicyclists, local law enforcement received three calls reporting a pickup truck matching the description of the vehicle involved in the crash as being operated in a reckless and erratic manner. The crash occured during daylight hours, the roadway surface was dry, and the weather was overcast with no precipitation.

As a result of the crash, five bicyclists were fatally injured and four sustained serious injuiries. The pickup truck river was uninjured.

​We determined that the probable cause of the Cooper Township, Michigan, crash was the impairing effects of the driver’s polysubstance abuse in the hours before the crash.​