3 dead, more than 20 hurt in Indiana pileup

Associated Press

MICHIGAN CITY, Ind.

About 30 vehicles, half of them semitrailers, collided amid white-out conditions in a massive highway pileup that left three people dead and more than 20 others injured — at least one critically — in northwestern Indiana, police said Thursday.

The pileup on Interstate 94 eastbound began Thursday afternoon near Michigan City, about 60 miles from Chicago, according to Indiana State Police, and at least one person was trapped in a vehicle for hours.

I-94 is the main highway heading east from Chicago to Michigan and Indiana, and the main thoroughfare between the nation’s third-largest city and Detroit. Traffic was backed up for hours in frigid, snowy conditions, though state police said one westbound lane was open late Thursday.

Photos of the scene showed semitrailers and mangled passenger vehicles jammed together the width of the highway near an overpass. Some passenger cars were sandwiched in the wreckage.

National Weather Service meteorologist Evan Bentley said a band of heavy lake-effect snow was reported in the area at the time of the crash, dropping 1 to 2 inches of snow per hour and reducing visibility to a quarter-mile or less — with some reports of visibility near zero.

Scott Collins, 17, of Chesterton, Ind., was riding in a car with three other teens and saw the crash happen just behind them.

“One of the semis started sliding, and I think it jackknifed in the middle of the road” and collided with another semi, he said. “After that happened, multiple semis locked up.”

He said a box truck got stuck on a guardrail and nearly went over into a waterway.

“We were pretty nervous,” he said.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Ann Wojas said 20 to 30 people were injured, including one with life-threatening injuries and another who was flown by medical helicopter to a hospital.

Franciscan St. Anthony Health in Michigan City had received at least 10 patients, hospital president Dr. Jim Callaghan said. Six people from the accident were taken to IU Health LaPorte Hospital, a nursing supervisor there said. Porter Regional Hospital also received patients, Wojas said.

The eastbound side was expected to be closed overnight as cranes and wreckers helped clear the scene, police said.