One driver was hospitalized with life-threatening injuries and another was taken to jail, after Indiana State Police say a new school bus rear-ended a semi on I-65. Troopers say it happened around 11:15 p.m. Thursday about two miles north of the Fair Oaks exit.
When they got there, police say they found the school bus in the right ditch, with its driver pinned inside but alert. It took several hours for the fire department to free him from the vehicle. He was eventually taken to Franciscan Health Hospital in Rensselaer and later to a hospital in Chicago for treatment. There were no passengers in the bus, which was new and being driven to another location when the crash happened.
Meanwhile, troopers say the driver of the semi initially stopped while Good Samaritans checked on both drivers but then suddenly pulled away. State Police say they eventually found the semi parked behind the Love's Truck Stop on State Road 10, with substantial damage to the trailer. When they spoke to the driver, Aregay Tesfay Gebremariam, 57, of Atlanta, Georgia, he reportedly "gave statements inconsistent with what had happened on the interstate."
He was taken to the Jasper County Jail and faces a preliminary felony charge of leaving the scene of a crash involving catastrophic bodily injury. Police do not believe drugs and alcohol were factors in the crash. The Indiana State Police Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division will inspect the vehicles.
