Driver dead after vehicle hits pole, catches fire in Washington Twp.

Micah Walker
Detroit Free Press

The driver of a blue Jeep Cherokee is dead after their vehicle hit a pole and caught on fire Sunday in Washington Township, the Macomb County Sheriff's Office reported. 

At 10 a.m., deputies responded to a single-vehicle crash on Van Dyke (M-53) and 26 Mile Road, where they saw the car was on fire. 

Witnesses reported that the Jeep was traveling southbound on Van Dyke when it ran off the roadway at a high rate of speed. The vehicle then traveled through a median, struck a pole and caught fire.

The Washington Township Fire Department extinguished the fire. Police say they believe only one person was in the vehicle. 

This is the second recent single-vehicle crash in Macomb County where a person died. On Nov. 20, an 86-year-old woman died after her 92-year-old driver hit a utility pole in Clinton Township. The man was turning left onto Garfield from 15 Mile when he ran off the roadway and hit the pole, causing it to break and fall on the car. 

Northbound and southbound Van Dyke between 26 and 30 Mile roads remains closed. An investigation is ongoing. 

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