ROSCOMMON COUNTY, MI -- The calm in Pamela Menz's voice betrays the unusual circumstances - her family's van was trapped under the tail end of a semi-trailer and was being pulled down I-75 for 16 miles - that prompted her Wednesday call to Northern Michigan 911 dispatchers.

"Our windshield is completely shattered. I can't see nothing," Menz told a Roscommon County dispatcher who answered the emergency call early on Jan. 7. "We ran into the back of a semi truck and he's not stopping and we're embedded underneath of it."

Menz was in the passenger seat of a minivan driven by her husband, and carrying their children, ages 22 and 26, when it crashed into the semi while northbound on I-75 near Roscommon.

The truck was hardly moving and had no hazard lights on. Snow was falling heavily and visibility was low. Matthew Menz braked, but it was too late, he told dispatchers in the 911 call obtained by MLive and The Grand Rapids Press in a Freedom of Information request.

The call came in at 1:50 a.m. and goes for 23 minutes as the van, powerless and with no heat, was carried down the highway for 16 miles by a police estimate. Dispatchers started police and rescue personnel toward the highway, but had little to go on where the accident happened and where the family's 2001 Toyota Sienna was during the call.

A Roscommon County dispatcher initially asked the couple if they could honk to get the semi driver's attention. But that wasn't an option, Pamela Menz said. The couple's vehicle had lost all power. She doubted her husband, in the driver's seat, even had the ability to brake.

"I just want to get off the back of this thing," she said.

The couple soon thought the semi driver was slowing to get off the highway at the Roscommon exit and the dispatcher asked if the family could jump out quickly when their van came to a full stop on the ramp.

But the dispatcher soon realized the couple had little idea where they actually were in their snow-covered mini-van, the windows heavily fogged and snow covering the vehicle. She was able to track their GPS coordinates, which showed the semi and minivan crossed into Crawford County

A Crawford dispatcher, listening to the man's account of what had happened, commented on how frightening the situation must be.

"Oh yeah," Matthew Menz replied. "Have you heard stories like this? You know, truck drivers talking, stories? It's a first for me."

Later, as police are approaching, Matthew Menz seems to take in a full sense of the situation, noting it seemed he had been towed for about 20 miles.

"That's incredible," a dispatcher can be heard saying.

The truck driver eventually stopped when police approached. He pulled in to a rest area near Grayling, having no idea what was happening.