Two dead, 5 injured as truck crashes into traffic on Indiana Toll Road in South Bend
SOUTH BEND — Two people are dead after a semitrailer plowed into a line of barely-moving cars on the Indiana Toll Road in northwest South Bend on Wednesday.
Officials say another five people were taken to the hospital as a result of the crash and the driver of the truck has been arrested. The pile up also halted traffic on the Toll Road for more than four hours.
The crash happened at 3 p.m. Wednesday in the eastbound lanes of I-80 near mile marker 71, very near the Olive Street bridge.
According to witnesses and Indiana Police Sgt. Ted Bohner, traffic nearing the bridge was slowing down due to nearby construction when a truck, which didn't slow down, came crashing into a group of five cars.
"The cars were stopped and the truck was still going highway speeds and ran into the cars, ran through the cars," said Zach Stewart, who works at Tire Rack and saw the crash unfold as he looked out of his office window. "It's really upsetting."
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The collision sent cars flying off the road left and right, with two landing in the grassy median and another being pushed over the median and into the west-bound lanes.
The first car hit by the truck, a black Jeep, stayed on the road and quickly burst into flames. The driver of that vehicle, 45-year-old Eric Klein from Anna, Ohio, was pronounced dead at the scene.
Jacqueline Luczak, 82, from Cicero, Ill, was also killed when the car she was riding in was pushed into the center median.
Five other individuals were taken to the hospital, four of whom had "serious but not life-threatening injuries," according to Bohner. Two other people were driving cars that were hit by the truck, but were uninjured.
The truck driver was arrested, though he has not formally been charged in connection to the crash as of Thursday morning.
Both east and west-bound traffic on the Toll Road was stopped for over three hours as crews worked to process and clean up the scene. Traffic in both directions opened back up around 8:30 p.m.
"You have to pay attention 100% of the time," Bohner said. "Because it takes just a split second of inattention and we have tragic results like we had [Wednesday]."
Email Marek Mazurek at mmazurek@sbtinfo.com. Follow him on Twitter: @marek_mazurek
This article originally appeared on South Bend Tribune: Two dead and five injured in Indiana Toll Road crash with semitrailer
