LAKE COUNTY, Ind. — A nasty crash in Lake County left two people several people hurt, and the cause of the crash is all too familiar to law enforcement.
It was around 2 o’clock Monday morning on I-80 about a mile and a half from the Indiana/Illinois state line.
“The driver tried to pass a semi on the right while the lane was being restricted, and drove through some cones and struck the basically what we call the guardrail head on,” says Sgt. Glen Fifield with Indiana State Police. The driver, a 25-year-old woman from Illinois, was thrown from the 2014 Cadillac SUV. The passenger was trapped inside, while two people in the back seat were able to get out.
State Police believe the driver was either drunk or high when the crash happened.
“It [the SUV] did it a semi after it hit the attenuator, but that semi driver was not hurt,” says Sgt. Fifield, “they [the driver and front passenger] did suffer potentially life-threatening injuries. The two patients were treated locally, and then they did end up being sent off to the University of Chicago for treatment.”
Fifield says part of the cause of the crash was the incorrect use of the lane, but the biggest factor was the driver being under the influence.
He says this is a constant issue that police have to deal with. Drivers make the wrong decision and decide to get behind the wheel when they shouldn’t.
“It seems simple, and it is very simple, just call for a ride share or don’t drink and just drive sober,” says Sgt. Fifield. He says the obvious goal is to get everyone on the road in 100% compliance with that idea, but the more these crashes happen, the more discouraging it becomes.
“When incidents like this happen, it becomes very discouraging because each one of these crashes is 100% preventable. So, just don’t drink and drive.”
