Fiery crash kills trucker, snarls traffic

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BY DAN HINKEL
dhinkel@nwitimes.com
219.933.4183 | Tuesday, June 26, 2007 | (6 comment(s))

MICHIGAN CITY | A fiery three-semitrailer wreck Monday afternoon killed a truck driver and paralyzed traffic on Interstate 94.

Eastbound lanes were closed from 1 to 8:30 p.m. as police officers, firefighters and hazardous materials crews cleaned up charred wreckage less than two miles from the Michigan border. Westbound lanes also were closed for two hours after the wreck.

At 5 p.m., crews still were trying to pull the driver's body from the burned semi cab, said John Sullivan, LaPorte County chief deputy coroner.

Neither the LaPorte County coroner nor the Indiana State Police released the dead driver's name Monday night. A state trooper said at 9:45 p.m. investigators didn't know the dead driver's identity and failed to reach the driver's trucking company.

Just before the crash at 12:55 p.m., vehicles idled in eastbound lanes as they waited to travel a construction zone in Michigan, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Wanda Clay. Two semis were stopped as a third semi approached.

For reasons unknown to investigators Monday afternoon, the third semi crashed into the rear of one of the stopped semis, knocking the stopped semi into another stopped semi, Clay said.

The impact sparked a blaze that torched two of the semis, including the one carrying the driver who died, Clay said. The driver who died was trapped in his semi during the blaze, she said.

Semi drivers Ibrahim Yilmaz, 38, and Rajinder S. Ghotra, 35, both of Ontario, Canada, escaped the crash and fire unhurt, Clay said. Both were wearing seat belts, she said.

A hazardous materials team worked to clean up spilled diesel Monday afternoon.

Signs diverted traffic off I-94 during the closure.

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disagreed wrote on Jun 26, 2007 10:42 PM:

" I think that the semi-drivers in this area are more coureous than 99.9 % of the normal drivers in this area. "

JLS wrote on Jun 26, 2007 9:50 PM:

" I had the misfortune of being one of hundreds of motorists stranded on I94 in the 90 degree heat yesterday for 4-hours. It was a very long and stressful period, with no real idea when we would be diverted. We made the most of our time by checking in with our local motorists, offering our A/C vehicle to a young lady traveling from Peoria to Grand Rapids, with a newly srung ankle and no A/C. The elderly couple next to us offered bottled waters. It does not take long to realize that our discomfort is nothing compared to those indivduals involved in this accident and the one blessed soul that lost his life on that expressway. The "season of construction" is in full swing, and this is one of the prevailing factors in this occurrence. It was an ACCIDENT and blanket statements about professional truck drivers being 99.9% unsafe is ignorant. "

Trucker's Girlfriend wrote on Jun 26, 2007 9:42 PM:

" My boyfriend is an over the road truck driver. Everytime I hear about a Semi involved in a accident I think to myself, "please don't let it be him". Then, I'm on the phone calling to make sure it's not him. "

Trucker's Wife wrote on Jun 26, 2007 7:08 PM:

" Sure there are bad truckers and I don't know what happened in this situation, but I'd say it's not 99.9% of the semi truck drivers that's the problem but the regular drivers who don't realize what it takes to stop a semi. I watch truckers leave plenty of space between them and the vehicle in front of them only to have it quickly filled by cars trying to get ahead. I've generally experienced semi drivers as more courteous--giving you plenty of space to merge or change lanes as long as you give fair warning with a turn signal. (And I thought this long before I was a trucker's wife). "

Keep on truckin wrote on Jun 26, 2007 12:10 PM:

" No James, 99.9% are not unsafe be realistic. The safe way out number the bad dude. It's the bad ones that give truckers a bad rep. "

James Huffington wrote on Jun 26, 2007 10:25 AM:

" God Bless the individual who was killed, but this is just another example of how unsafe 99.9% of the semi truck drivers are around this area and the nation "

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