MILWAUKEE — On a night tens of thousands of people filled American Family Field to see the artist P!nk, it almost turned disastrous after a rollover crash sent an SUV from the freeway into one of the stadium’s parking lots within feet of attendees.
“It was terrifying,” Maureen Spencer recalls. “If I had been a few feet different, I might not have come home to her.”
Spencer’s little girl, Quinn, bounced up and down on her mom’s lap Wednesday evening. Her world couldn’t be better as she mouthed an iPhone with a handful of small teeth in her mouth. But just two days before, her mom and her dad were nearly killed.
Video from the Wisconsin Department of Transportation shows just before 7 p.m., an SUV is entering the on-ramp to get on I-94 Westbound. It loses control, rolls over, and crashes through a chain link fence, landing in the Molitor Parking Lot.
In the video, Maureen and her husband Sam can be seen.
“That’s me getting tackled,” Maureen said. “And that’s Sam right there, that little blip.”
Maureen says as she was exiting one of the porta-potties, a stranger tackled her to the ground. Sam stared down the two ton vehicle as it got closer and closer.
“All you hear is just the grinding of plastic along the asphalt,” Maureen said. “That’s a sound you don’t forget.”
“I heard a tire screech,” Sam said. “ I see a car flipping and coming at me. I thought it’s probably not going to hit me but with the speed, I’m like ok that’s coming into the lot. The car landed about seven feet from where I was standing. It’s like a parking lot and highway. There’s really not all that much between you.”
The married couple says the crash couldn’t have happened at a better time. A difference of seconds, and there could have been a large group of Pink fans heading into AmFam Field right at that moment.
“It really was just the correct perfect window for nobody to be walking,” Sam said. “Ten seconds before or after? It would have been different.”
“It’s just one of those what-ifs,” Maureen said. “That’s scary. Disturbingly lucky.
This on-ramp has seen its fair share of crashes. According to Wisconsin State Crash Data, there have been 56 crashes on the I-94 westbound ramp since 2020, including 14 minor injuries.
Both Maureen and Sam hope someone takes notice of this crash and adds more protective reinforcements along the parking lot areas to keep people like them safe.
“If there had been more bodies there, how many more people would have had to run?” Maureen said. “How many more people might not have noticed that in time to get out of the way? I definitely would like to see better barriers put up for pedestrian safety.”
“There’s nothing there,” Sam said. “There’s a little fence. A little tiny fence that could stop a human from crossing, but that’s about it. It’s not going to stop a vehicle.”
The Milwaukee County Sheriff’s Office tells TMJ4, it does not believe alcohol was a factor in the crash. It believes the driver just lost control, likely influenced by the wet conditions Monday night. The driver was not cited.
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