{"id":24241,"date":"2026-04-02T11:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-02T16:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/?p=24241"},"modified":"2026-04-02T05:56:01","modified_gmt":"2026-04-02T10:56:01","slug":"hettinger-crash-kills-michigan-pilot-car-driver","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/hettinger-crash-kills-michigan-pilot-car-driver\/","title":{"rendered":"Hettinger Crash Kills Michigan Pilot Car Driver"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><strong>Hettinger, Adams County<\/strong> (<a href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\">trfnews.i234.me<\/a>) \u2014 A 24-year-old man from Waterford, Michigan, died Tuesday, March 31, 2026, after a crash on Highway 12 east of Hettinger.<\/p>\n<p>According to the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nd.gov\/ndhp\">North Dakota Highway Patrol<\/a>, the man was driving a Toyota Tundra as a pilot car for an oversize load. The crash happened just after 10 a.m. MST.<\/p>\n<h2>Crash Happened East of Hettinger<\/h2>\n<p>Investigators said the Toyota was heading west on Highway 12. It was a few miles east of Hettinger at the time of the crash.<\/p>\n<p>A 2007 International truck and trailer was also traveling westbound. The truck was driven by a 72-year-old man from Hettinger. A 20-year-old passenger from Hettinger was also inside.<\/p>\n<p>The Highway Patrol said the Toyota was moving between 65 and 70 miles per hour. The larger truck was traveling about 45 miles per hour.<\/p>\n<p>Authorities said the Toyota rear-ended the trailer being pulled by the International truck. The impact was severe.<\/p>\n<h2>Victim Died at the Scene<\/h2>\n<p>The 24-year-old Michigan man died at the scene. Authorities said he was not wearing a seat belt.<\/p>\n<p>The driver and passenger in the International truck were not hurt.<\/p>\n<h2>Oversize Load Driver Not Identified<\/h2>\n<p>The Highway Patrol did not say whether the driver of the oversize load was hurt. No other injury details were released.<\/p>\n<p>Officials have not released the victim\u2019s name. More information may be posted later by the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.nd.gov\/ndhp\/news\">North Dakota Highway Patrol news page<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The crash remains under investigation. Drivers are urged to slow down and leave more space around large trucks and trailers. Safety guidance is available through the <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dot.nd.gov\">North Dakota Department of Transportation<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>I&#8217;m Chris Harper reporting for <a href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\">TRF News<\/a>.<\/p>\n<figure id=\"attachment_24340\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-24340\" style=\"width: 300px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-medium wp-image-24340\" src=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hettinger-Crash-Kills-Michigan-Pilot-Car-Driver-300x200.png\" alt=\"Hettinger Crash Kills Michigan Pilot Car Driver\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hettinger-Crash-Kills-Michigan-Pilot-Car-Driver-300x200.png 300w, https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hettinger-Crash-Kills-Michigan-Pilot-Car-Driver-1024x683.png 1024w, https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hettinger-Crash-Kills-Michigan-Pilot-Car-Driver-768x512.png 768w, https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/Hettinger-Crash-Kills-Michigan-Pilot-Car-Driver.png 1536w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-24340\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Hettinger Crash Kills Michigan Pilot Car Driver<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hettinger, Adams County (trfnews.i234.me) \u2014 A 24-year-old man from Waterford, Michigan, died Tuesday, March 31, 2026, after a crash on Highway 12 east of Hettinger. According to the North Dakota Highway Patrol, the man was driving a Toyota Tundra as a pilot car for an oversize load. The crash happened just after 10 a.m. MST.&hellip; <a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/hettinger-crash-kills-michigan-pilot-car-driver\/\">Continue reading <span class=\"screen-reader-text\">Hettinger Crash Kills Michigan Pilot Car Driver<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":24340,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_wpscp_schedule_draft_date":"","_wpscp_schedule_republish_date":"","_wpscppro_advance_schedule":false,"_wpscppro_advance_schedule_date":"","_wpscppro_dont_share_socialmedia":null,"_wpscppro_custom_social_share_image":0,"_facebook_share_type":"default","_twitter_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type":"default","_pinterest_share_type":"default","_linkedin_share_type_page":"","_instagram_share_type":"default","_medium_share_type":"default","_threads_share_type":"default","_google_business_share_type":"default","_selected_social_profile":[],"_wpsp_enable_custom_social_template":false,"_wpsp_social_scheduling":{"enabled":false,"datetime":null,"platforms":[],"status":"template_only","dateOption":"today","timeOption":"now","customDays":"","customHours":"","customDate":"","customTime":"","schedulingType":"absolute"},"_wpsp_active_default_template":true},"categories":[12],"tags":[15894,257,998,772,7975,2623,943,3290,15842,15888,15890,2793,656,15891,1479,15893,7985,15892,1520],"class_list":["post-24241","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-crime","tag-adams-county-news","tag-car","tag-crash","tag-crime","tag-dickinson","tag-dies","tag-driver","tag-fatal-crash","tag-hettinger","tag-hettinger-crash","tag-highway-12-crash","tag-kills","tag-michigan","tag-michigan-man-killed","tag-north-dakota-highway-patrol","tag-oversize-load-accident","tag-pilot","tag-pilot-car-crash","tag-press","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24241","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=24241"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/24241\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/24340"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=24241"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=24241"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/trfnews.i234.me\/wordpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=24241"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}