I-65 accident claims Medaryville man's life

Details

Published: Thursday, 13 October 2016 21:11

ROSELAWN - A Medaryville man, who was a passenger in a car, died when he was ejected from the vehicle which lost control entering a rest park on I-65 Wednesday night.

The victim has been identified as Nicholas James Vega, 26, Medaryville, according to Indiana State Police.

The preliminary investigation by Trooper Justin Hansen revealed that at approximately 9:17 p.m., Oct. 12, a 2005 Honda Accord, driven by Zachary Smith Vetter, 25, of Crown Point was southbound on I-65 entering the rest park north of the Demotte/Roselawn exit at a high rate of speed. 

Police explained there is a split in the road at the entrance to the park for cars to go to the right to park and semis/trucks to go to the left to park. Vetter took neither, according to the police report, and continued straight, hitting a large state highway sign sideways on the driver’s side. This sheared the 12-foot poles holding the sign up off at the ground. The Accord began to roll going down an embankment into a muddy, reed filled ditch. At some point, the passenger was ejected out of the car. The Accord rolled out of the ditch and came to rest in the entrance lane for cars at the rest park. 

Police report the ejected passenger came to rest under a 2006 Freightliner's rear tandem tires, owned by KOS Trans of Hartland, Wis. The Freightliner was parked in the first parking slot in the semi/truck lot in the rest park. The sign poles, after being sheared off, hit the same Freightliner’s trailer. The driver of the Freightliner was asleep in his truck's sleeper compartment. 

Vega was pronounced dead at the scene by the Jasper County Coroner of massive blunt force trauma. He was not wearing a seat belt.

Vetter was cut out of his seat belt by a Jasper County Sheriff’s deputy and was taken by ambulance to Riverside Medical Center in Kankakee, Ill. with non-life threatening injuries.

A German Shepherd dog was also in the Accord and was not injured. The Shepherd kept watch over the deceased until Jasper County Animal Control came to retrieve him.

Assisting: Troopers Brandon Bohling, Kurt Jones, and Corey Adam, Corporal Dan Becker, Jasper County Sheriff’s Department, Keener Township Fire and EMS, Jasper County Coroner, Jasper County Animal Control and Cheever’s Towing.

Indiana State Police report