A 36-year-old Adrian man is in critical condition after a westbound Jeep Cherokee struck him while he was walking in the roadway on Rome Road near Wilkinson Highway in Rome Township, according to Michigan State Police. The crash happened around 8 p.m. Tuesday, leaving the pedestrian with severe injuries while the driver and her young passenger walked away unharmed.
Police said the man was walking westbound in the roadway when he was hit by the westbound Jeep, according to WILX. The Jeep's driver, a 40-year-old Hillsdale woman, had a juvenile passenger in the vehicle at the time; neither of them was hurt in the crash, the station reported. The injured man was taken to a local hospital with critical injuries, and investigators said alcohol is not suspected to be a factor.
Investigation Still Open, Troopers Seeking Information
Michigan State Police said the investigation remains ongoing, per the same account from the television station, and have not announced whether any charges or citations are expected in connection with the crash. According to MLive, troopers were assisted at the scene by the Lenawee County Sheriff's Department, Lenawee County Central Dispatch, Lenawee County Ambulance, and Cambridge Township Fire Department and EMS. Rome Road was closed for several hours while investigators worked the scene, MLive reported.
Anyone with information about the crash is asked to contact Trooper Lowry Rains at 734-242-3500, per MLive's reporting. No further details about what led up to the collision, including visibility conditions or the pedestrian's exact position in the road beyond walking westbound, have been released.
Part of a Troubling Pattern on Michigan Roads
The Rome Township crash follows other recent pedestrian strikes around the state. On Sept. 12, a 76-year-old Grand Blanc woman was left in critical condition after being struck by a vehicle while crossing the street in a marked crosswalk, according to MLive's Flint coverage; investigators in that case likewise said they did not believe speed, drugs or alcohol played a role. Earlier this month, a pedestrian was fatally struck on Detroit's Lodge Freeway after stepping out of their vehicle to help people involved in an earlier crash, only to be hit by an approaching motorist who swerved to avoid a disabled car, according to ClickOnDetroit.
Michigan State Police's 2025 crash-data release reported that pedestrian fatalities statewide increased 18 percent, climbing from 156 to 184, according to the Michigan State Police news release. The agency's full crash data is now published through the Michigan Traffic Crash Dashboard, which replaced the department's older PDF-based year-end reports, according to the Michigan State Police traffic safety page. For now, the Adrian man's condition and the circumstances that put him in the roadway Tuesday night remain the focus of an active investigation in Lenawee County.
