A Liberty Township resident died in a two vehicle accident on Tuesday at the intersection of Ind. 149 and C.R. 875N, the Porter County Sheriff’s Police said.

The victim was identified as David A. Pence, 69. Porter County Coroner Victoria Deppe pronounced him dead at the scene, police said, and today her spokesperson told the Chesterton Tribune that cause of death was determined to be multiple blunt force trauma to the head and chest.

According to police, at 10:48 a.m. Pence was westbound in his 1993 Ford Taurus on C.R. 875N. Witnesses advised police that he stopped for the stop sign at the intersection of Ind. 149, then proceeded from the stop sign, and was struck in the driver’s side door by a 2007 Ford Explorer Sport Trac northbound on Ind. 149 and driven by Crystal S. Burch, 26, of Portage.

Burch advised police that she braked and swerved but was unable to avoid collision.

Both vehicles came to rest in a field northwest of the intersection, Burch’s after striking a utility pole, police said.

Burch declined medical treatment at the scene but was subsequently treated at Porter Portage Hospital Campus for pain and abrasions to her arm. Two of her passengers, a 28-year-old Portage woman and a 16-year-old South Haven girl, were uninjured, police said, but a third–who had unbuckled her seat belt just prior to the crash to reach for something–struck her forehead and sustained abrasions.

The results of a routine blood test on Burch are pending, police said, but there is no indication at all that she was impaired at the time of the crash.

Both the Liberty Township Volunteer and South Haven fire departments responded to scene. The accident is being investigated by a PCSP crash reconstructionist with assistance from the Indiana State Police.

Ind. 149 was closed in both directions for three hours.

Posted 6/27/2007