News
The Mitten Daily

Where to go, towns to see, and the people you will find when you get there.

News · Sterling Heights

Sterling Heights ambulance crash: patient dies after Jeep hits ambulance at Van Dyke and Metro Parkway, a known problem intersection

The Mitten Daily · October 28, 2026, 1:27 p.m. ET · Sterling Heights

A white ambulance with red stripes and MMR lettering parked beside a red brick building with a tan upper wall, under a deep blue sky.
An ambulance parked outside a hospital emergency department in Mount Pleasant in April 2020, in a file photo. It is not the Aspire ambulance involved in the Sterling Heights crash. Photo: Dan Gaken / Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0 (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0/), cropped and color-adjusted.

STERLING HEIGHTS, Mich. — A patient being carried in an ambulance died after a Jeep slammed into the ambulance and rolled it over Sunday evening at Van Dyke Avenue and Metropolitan Parkway, an intersection Sterling Heights police call a known problem.

The patient, a 36-year-old man from North Branch in Lapeer County, was pronounced dead at a hospital, police said. Officers have not released his name.

What police say happened. Calls about a serious multi-vehicle crash came in about 6:30 p.m. Sunday, Oct. 25, with one person reported unconscious, police told WWJ. An Aspire Health System ambulance was heading south on Van Dyke with its emergency lights and siren on when, as it went through the intersection, a black 2025 Jeep Grand Cherokee hit the right side of its rear patient compartment. The impact rolled the ambulance before it came to rest on its wheels.

The ambulance carried a two-person crew and the patient. The paramedic riding in back with him was hospitalized with moderate injuries, and the Jeep’s driver was taken to a hospital with injuries that were not life-threatening, police said. The ambulance driver was the only person not taken to a hospital, according to police accounts reported by WDIV and WWJ. Aspire Rural Health System is based in Cass City, WXYZ reported.

What is still unknown. Police said drunk or drugged driving does not appear to be a factor. Investigators are still sorting out how fast the vehicles were going and which way the lights were showing. “Speed, whether the lights were green, red, in what direction, we’re still obtaining witness information,” Lt. Lamar Kashat told WXYZ, adding that the Jeep was eastbound on Metropolitan Parkway. No one has been charged or ticketed, and police have not said anyone was at fault.

A known problem spot. Kashat called Van Dyke and Metropolitan Parkway, also known as 16 Mile Road, a known problem intersection and said the city has been working on it. “We’ve put in a lot of things in place recently at that intersection, we’ve established our Safe Road Task Force, we also have our Traffic Calming Task Force and we have our Safe Streets Initiative,” he told the station.

What the law requires. Michigan law says that when an emergency vehicle approaches with flashing red or blue lights and a siren, other drivers must yield, pull as close as possible to the right edge of the road, clear of any intersection, and stop until it passes. Failing to do so is a civil infraction. The same law says it does not relieve the emergency driver of the duty to drive “with due regard for the safety” of everyone else on the road. Kashat urged drivers to slow down and pull to the right when they see or hear an emergency vehicle.

Witnesses. Anyone who saw the crash or has information is asked to call Officer Porter of the Sterling Heights Police Department Traffic Safety Bureau at 586-446-2920.

Sources:
CBS News Detroit, “Patient dies, two others hurt following crash involving ambulance in Sterling Heights,” Oct. 26, 2026 (police account, vehicles, injuries, impairment not suspected, witness line), https://www.cbsnews.com/detroit/news/patient-dies-crash-ambulance-sterling-heights/
WWJ Newsradio, “Patient killed, two other hurt, when ambulance rolls over in Sterling Heights,” Oct. 26, 2026 (6:30 p.m. calls, Metro Parkway is 16 Mile, rear compartment, ambulance driver not hurt), https://www.audacy.com/wwjnewsradio/news/local/patient-killed-two-other-hurt-when-ambulance-rolls-over-in-sterling-heights
WDIV ClickOnDetroit, “Patient dies at hospital after ambulance overturns in crash with Jeep in Sterling Heights,” Oct. 27, 2026 (who was hospitalized), https://www.clickondetroit.com/news/local/2026/10/27/patient-dies-after-ambulance-overturns-in-crash-with-jeep-in-sterling-heights/
WXYZ, “Patient dies after ambulance overturns in Sterling Heights crash at known problem intersection,” Oct. 27, 2026 (Lt. Lamar Kashat quotes, eastbound Jeep, Cass City-based Aspire Rural Health System; WXYZ reported both drivers had non-life-threatening injuries, while WWJ and WDIV reported the ambulance driver was not hurt or hospitalized), https://www.wxyz.com/news/patient-dies-after-ambulance-overturns-in-sterling-heights-crash-at-known-problem-intersection
Michigan Legislature, MCL 257.653 (yielding to emergency vehicles), https://www.legislature.mi.gov/Laws/MCL?objectName=mcl-257-653
Photo: Dan Gaken, “Ambulance (49731112306).jpg,” April 2, 2020, Wikimedia Commons, CC BY 2.0, cropped and color-adjusted, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ambulance_(49731112306).jpg

Sterling Heights

Tags: Sterling Heights · Public Safety · Traffic Safety · Van Dyke Avenue · Ambulance · Crash

More from Sterling Heights

News · October 27, 2026

Sterling Heights tests stove burners that can’t get hot enough to start a grease fire, at an apartment complex with three fires in two years

Firefighters are swapping the coils on about 100 electric stoves at Fieldstone Apartments for temperature-limiting burners, free to tenants, and will track the complex for a year. Why apartments, and what any cook can do before Thanksgiving.

News · October 27, 2026

Sterling Heights oak tree: a smaller Van Dyke apartment plan spares the Sterling Oak, with a council hearing Nov. 4

The Chaldean Community Foundation cut its north Van Dyke project from 80 apartments to 29 and built the site around an 88-foot chinquapin oak. Other big trees would still come down. Here is what changed, what residents still question and how to weigh in.

Community · October 23, 2026

Sterling Heights’ Nelson Park garden wins the Michigan Municipal League’s top community award, as a 3,000-square-foot mural goes up at the Athletic Hub

A former soccer field became a community garden, butterfly conservatory and micro-forest built with federal ARPA money. Here is what is there, how to rent a bed, and the new postcard mural on Van Dyke.

News · October 22, 2026

Sterling Heights moves polling places for eight precincts and about 18,000 voters on Nov. 3; early voting opens Saturday at two sites

Five regular polling places are unavailable this election. Here is where those voters go instead, where and when to vote early, the seven drop boxes and what the clerk told the Election Commission.