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Family behind viral pile-up video recalls U.S. 31 crash

Posted at 3:58 AM, Dec 31, 2017
and last updated 2017-12-31 03:58:03-05

WHITEHALL, Mich. -- Just days after a massive pile-up on U.S 31 in Muskegon County, we are hearing from a couple behind a viral video capturing the aftermath of the crash that involved nearly 40 cars.

"It was just flying all around us, just turned into a madhouse," said Jim and Sue Perreault, who were the first of nearly 40 other drivers who crashed in Friday's pile-up.

"Going in, after we got in it was a white out, huge white out and we realized there was four, five cars ahead of us on the highway and there was no way to get through so we decided to take to the ditch," The Perreault's said.

At the time of the crash, it was just 16 degrees outside so they decided to stay in the car, and then, they started recording.

"I felt like i was narrating a batman show you know with the crash, bang, boom," Jim said.

"I was freaking out... I was crying and telling my husband to basically get us out of here because I was literally freaking out," said Lisa Hitsman, who was also involved in the pile-up.

Jim and Sue first shared the video they took with their six kids and then 24 hours later, it had 5.7 million views.

"We were kinda sitting like this and our truck was buried with snow because every time someone went by us we had snow covered over us," they said.

"It was coming in so fast, so hard," Jim said. "(I've )never seen anything like it, scariest darn thing I`ve ever seen," Sue said.

The Perrault's say officers made sure to keep them informed off all developments so they never had wait, wondering what was going on. Though each one of the nearly 40 drivers involved had a different angle of what happened, many agree on one thing:

"We were thankful that we were not hit and made it out alive and nobody died," Hitsman said. "We were truly blessed that we ended up as well as we did, to honest because there`s a lot more people that had a lot more damage than we had."