Continuously serving Kosciusko County since 1854
Several people were injured Tuesday in a six-vehicle pileup on Ind. 15 south of Southwood Drive Tuesday afternoon.
The cause of the crash, which occurred at about 1:58 p.m., was still under investigation as of about 2:55 p.m., Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Office Public Information Officer Sgt. Doug Light said.
“It’s kind of a chain reaction accident,” he said.
One semi-tractor trailer full of corn was overturned. There also was one passenger car, two pickup trucks and two SUVs involved.
The overturned semi carrying corn lays across Ind. 15, on the south edge of the accident. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union“At this time, one patient has been flown. One has been ground transported to Fort Wayne, and that’s really the extent of the injuries,” Light said, noting those were the injuries that he knew of at that time.
No further information on the drivers and/or passengers in the vehicles and their conditions was available.
With the semi overturned and blocking the whole road, as well as the other vehicles on the road, Light expected the investigation and cleanup of the scene to take a while. Indiana 15 was reopened around 6:::30 p.m. Tuesday.
Tyce Rooney, the driver of the 2003 Peterbilt 379 semi-tractor trailer, said he was hauling grain to North Manchester.
“The white Lincoln went into oncoming traffic and hit the red Ford, and the red Ford went towards me and I hit them,” he recalled.
The collision caused the semi to tip over. He said he got his stuff together and then immediately got out of the semi. He didn’t know how the other three vehicles got involved in the pileup.
Rooney was shaken up with a possible concussion.
Some of the residents in the area said they didn’t see anything, but they definitely heard the crash, saying it sounded like a sonic boom.
“When I came out of my house, it looked like a big mushroom of smoke. So when I got here, nothing was on fire,” said Karen Saffen.
Anna Zartman said, “I literally ran out of the house and came out here to check on people. The guy in the white car was still conscious and everything when I got out here.”
One guy said he had fuel spilled onto his property.
A woman said the semi definitely did not start the crash. “Please make that clear. The semi was not involved. The white car crossed the center line and hit the red truck head on,” she said.
Zartman said the semi truck tried to avoid the crash, went around it and tipped over.
No further information is available at this time.
Responding to the scene were the KCSO, Warsaw Police Department, Warsaw-Wayne Fire Territory, Kosciusko County Emergency Management Agency, Lutheran EMS and Lutheran Air.
The medic helicopter arrives at the accident scene to transport one of the patients. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
Emergency personnel respond to Tuesday afternoon's multiple vehicle accident on Ind. 15, south of CR 150W. Photo by Gary Nieter, Times-Union
