LAKE STATION | A stalled moving truck led to a fatal wreck and injured several people Tuesday night, police said.
A Griffith man was killed on impact when the Dodge Dakota he was driving slammed into the back of the stalled moving truck on Interstate 80/94 west of Central Avenue at 4:59 p.m., according to an Indiana State Police news release.
The driver of the pickup truck, Joshua Garner, 20, died at the scene from massive blunt force trauma, the release states.
Four passengers in the truck were injured. Garner's sister, Amber Garner, 19, of Griffith, was in the front seat and suffered injuries to her leg and was treated at Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary.
Eugene McCall was airlifted to Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood with life-threatening injuries, police said. McCall, 20, of Lansing, was sitting in the backseat behind the driver and had to be extricated from the vehicle.
Katherine A. Metzcuz, 17, of Lansing, was sitting in the middle of the back seat and also had to be extricated. She was rushed to Methodist Hospitals Northlake Campus in Gary with life-threatening injuries to her head, according to the release.
Keith Halicky, 18, of Thornton, suffered facial injuries and was treated at the hospital in Gary.
Police found during a preliminary investigation that alcohol is suspected to be a factor in the wreck.
The driver of the moving truck told police the vehicle stalled in the center right lane of the four-lane expressway, the release states.
A semitrailer side-swiped the moving truck before the pickup crashed into it. The semitrailer continued on the expressway without stopping, police said.
No other injuries were reported.
Traffic was backed up for hours as officials from ISP, the Indiana Department of Transportation, the Lake Station Fire Department and EMS, the Lake County coroner's office and the Hobart Fire Department worked the scene.
Traffic began moving again around 7:15 p.m.
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