[chris]

A semitrailer plowed into traffic that had backed up on Interstate 94 near Raymond, Wisconsin, killing a 23-year-old Illinois man and injuring about a dozen other people in a chain-reaction pileup, according to the Racine County Sheriff's Office.

The crash happened at 1:27 p.m. on Sunday, March 18, 2012, on the northbound lanes near the off-ramp for 7 Mile Road, authorities said. Traffic had slowed as drivers tried to exit when the semi struck the rear passenger side of a 2006 Pontiac G6 that was stopped in the emergency lane, setting off a chain reaction that eventually involved eight vehicles.

Miguel Angel Orozco, 23, of Waukegan, Illinois, who was riding in the rear passenger seat, was pronounced dead at the scene, the sheriff's office said. Chief Medical Examiner Tom Terry said Orozco appeared to have suffered an injury high in his neck and that death was "pretty much instantaneous." The car was being driven by Orozco's fiancee, who was hospitalized, and the couple's 5-week-old infant suffered only minor injuries.

Racine County dispatchers received numerous 911 calls reporting the collision, and rescue crews reached the scene minutes later. About a dozen people were taken to hospitals in the region, all but one with injuries described as non-life-threatening, according to the sheriff's office.

Town of Raymond firefighters used "jaws, spreaders and cutters" to free trapped occupants, Fire Chief Alan Babe said. Babe said traffic congestion and bystanders who stopped to help made the response difficult. "I literally had 20 to 30 people roaming around that accident scene when I came in," he said.

Investigators first counted six vehicles, a semitrailer, three cars and two pickup trucks, before determining that two more had been struck, one of them by flying debris. Sgt. Bill Mattke said the question of why the truck driver "was where he was" remained under investigation. No citations had been issued in the days after the crash, and the sheriff's office said the case would be reviewed with the district attorney for possible traffic citations or criminal charges. It was believed to be the fourth fatal crash in Racine County in 2012.