State Police Car Wrecked When Teen Ignores Flares On 696

WARREN (WWJ) - No one was seriously hurt, but a Michigan State Police patrol car was destroyed in a crash along I-696 Wednesday night.

State troopers were handling another crash, along the eastbound side of the freeway near Van Dyke in Warren, at around 11:15 p.m. when the accident happened.

Police say troopers set up a flare pattern and parked patrol cars in lakes to project drivers at the scene, but one motorist —identified as 19-year-old Aaron Rasche of St. Clair Shores — drove through the flares, rear-ending a patrol car.

Police said, luckily, the patrol car was unoccupied at the time of the crash, but both the patrol car and Rasche's vehicle, a 2002 Ford Explorer, suffered disabling damage.

A passenger in the Explorer was transported to a local hospital which non-life threatening injuries.

Rasche was processed and released.