It’s been nearly six months since the Putman family tragically lost three relatives in a deadly crash and Blake Putman can still recall the accident as if it happened yesterday.
“I remember the entire thing,” Blake, 37, who was driving the car when it was struck by a semi-truck in September 2025, told People on Friday, March 13. “I remember the car hitting us. I remember being on the road. I remember a lot of scenes inside the vehicle.”
The Meet the Putmans star recalled, “He hit my door, and how God allowed me to be where I am today, I’m not really sure.”
Blake was driving one of three cars carrying the Putman family — who gained fame while starring on TLC’s Meet the Putmans in 2017 — as they headed home from watching Blake’s 15-year-old son Noah play football. Tragedy struck when they were about one mile from their house in Caro, Michigan, on September 26, 2025.
Blake’s vehicle was transporting eight family members, including his parents, Bill “Papa” Putman and Barb “Neenee” Putman, his wife, Megan Putman, Blake and Megan’s son Noah and daughters Lulu, 13, and Alena, 11. Blake’s brother Brandon Putman’s daughter Gia, 11, was also in the car when the semi-truck collided with it.
Papa and Neenee, who were both 65, died in the crash, as did Blake’s wife, Megan, who was 37.
“Megan had her arms around me when he hit us, and my dad was sleeping,” Blake recalled on Friday. “My mom and dad and Megan, they died on the scene. The autopsy said that they were immediately gone. There was no saving them.”
Blake, for his part, said he suffered a “couple broken bones” in his neck as well as a broken nose and some lacerations.
Brandon, 39, and his wife, Kacie Putman, were in one of the other two cars when the accident played out in front of them. (Blake, Brandon and their other two siblings, Billy and Blair, all live in one house with their spouses and children. Their late parents also lived with them prior to their deaths.)
“There’s only one thing that could come out of my mouth, and it was, ‘Dear God, save my kids,'” Kacie told People. “He did that. He saved every one of our kids.”
While all four kids in the struck vehicle did survive, they sustained injuries. Lulu had a pelvic fracture and Alena suffered a clavicle fracture. Noah and Gia had traumatic brain injuries.
“I remember pulling Noah out of the car, and I didn’t think he’d be the same as he is,” Brandon explained of his nephew. “The way he’s bounced back and is stronger in almost every facet than he was before in a short amount of time is amazing. Gia, the same thing.”
Noah spent two weeks in the ICU and underwent two months in rehab, but the family said he is now back at school, playing football and wrestling.
Gia has had a harder road after being airlifted to the hospital to undergo emergency surgery, which her father, Brandon, said saved her life.
“If she would’ve went by ambulance, she wouldn’t have made it,” Brandon revealed. “Her spleen went through her diaphragm and up into the left side of her chest. She broke her clavicle and broke her left humerus, which is not very funny — I got to throw a little bit of dad jokes in there — but it’s a miracle.”
After 10 brain surgeries and three months in the hospital, Gia returned home in January, but she still has a tracheostomy to help with breathing. (A tracheostomy is a surgically created opening in the neck that establishes an airway and ventilation, according to Mayo Clinic.)
As everyone continues to heal medically, the family said they are still navigating how to emotionally move forward from their losses.
“Megan is my soulmate,” Blake told the outlet, noting he still refers to his late wife in the present tense. “I remember telling her that I know that heaven exists, and she kind of looked at me like, ‘Okay, why are you telling me this?’ We were holding each other in bed, and I told her, ‘Because I can’t love someone as much as I love you, and this be it.'” (The couple celebrated their 18-year anniversary just weeks before Megan’s death.)
Brandon noted that they have leaned on each other to get through the tough season.
“But this family, we circle each other, and when one person’s weak, we pick them up,” he said. “God bless my dad for having the vision to bring us together like that and to teach us these principles to live by.”
In December 2025, the driver responsible for the crash, Pavel Schukin, pleaded no contest to three counts of a moving violation causing death, which is a misdemeanor. He was sentenced to one year and jail and at the sentencing the Putman brothers gave him a Bible and forgave him.
“At the funeral, a lot of people came up to us, like, ‘Wow. To see how you guys responded to the driver by gifting him a Bible and giving him forgiveness, that strengthened my faith,'” Brandon said on Wednesday. “Well, the feeling’s mutual. That was our goal when we had our show.”
