The trucker whose
rig overturned on Wednesday at the intersection of Ind. 49 and the entrance
to the Indiana Toll Road felt his trailer “begin to shift” just before the
crash, Chesterton Police said.
According to
police, trucker Dion Lewis, 52, of South Holland, Mich., was northbound on
Ind. 49 when he “began to execute his left turn” into the Toll Road “from a
dead stop” at the traffic signal. Lewis--who stated that “he was going no
more than 20 miles per hour through the turn”--felt his rig “shift in an
unusual manner,” then from his outside mirror saw his trailer tipping onto
its right side,” police said.
Lewis sustained
minor bleeding to the head, appeared “slightly disoriented” on
first-responders’ arrival, and was subsequently transported to hospital,
police said.
The trailer itself
slid for a short distance on the pavement before coming to rest on the north
shoulder of the entrance to the Toll Road, just barely clearing the
southbound lanes of Ind. 49.
Due to the extreme
heat on Wednesday--93 degrees at the time of the crash, police said--the
softened asphalt was damaged during the process to right the semi.
The vehicle, which
sustained up to $25,000 in damage, was towed, police said, but the trailer
was subsequently impounded by the Indiana State Police’s Motor Carrier
Division “for an inactive trailer plate,” police added.
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