GOSHEN, IN : A Mishawaka man lost his life in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. 6 on Wednesday, January, 24th 2018

A Mishawaka man lost his life in a two-vehicle crash on U.S. 6, the one fatality among dozens of wrecks in Elkhart County amid a new round of snow and ice Wednesday.

Anthony Eddy, 25, died after the pickup truck he was driving collided head-on with a tractor-trailer at U.S. 6 and C.R. 25 near New Paris around 10 a.m. Wednesday, Elkhart County police said.

The crash spun Eddy’s truck around, while the tractor-trailer, driven by Richard Brown of North Manchester, veered off the road and struck a NIPSCO utility pole, cracking it.

Brown was taken to Goshen Hospital to be treated for pain and non-life-threatening injuries, police said.

U.S. 6 was closed for several hours, leading to a lengthy back-up of westbound traffic, as police and New Paris/Jackson Township firefighters responded to the crash, investigated it and cleared the wreckage. Utility workers were also at the scene to address the broken pole.

The crash that killed Eddy was one of 22 reported to Elkhart County police Wednesday. Of them, 14 occurred within a two-hour time span between 8–10 a.m., and four of them involved injuries, police said.

The icy road conditions and the volume of crashes prompted authorities to issue a travel advisory in Elkhart County around 11:30 a.m. Wednesday.

Approximately 12 crashes were reported within Goshen as of 3 p.m. Wednesday, Goshen police said. About half of those crashes were the result of vehicles sliding off roads. Two crashes resulted in minor injuries to some people, according to police.

The U.S. 20 Bypass near Elkhart was a problematic area Wednesday. Elkhart County police cited “numerous crashes” between Ind. 19 and C.R. 17.

In one incident, an Indiana State Police trooper was injured while on the scene of a crashed SUV west of U.S. 33 around 8 a.m.

Master Trooper Geoffrey Gruber was in his patrol car, with the police lights activated, when a car purportedly slid on ice and into the back of his vehicle. The car then spun and struck the wrecked SUV, state police said in a report.

The car's driver, Inna Fox of Goshen, was not injured. But Gruber was taken to Elkhart General Hospital to be treated for non-life-threatening injuries.

The westbound lanes of the U.S. 20 Bypass was shut down for a few hours due to that crash and to give highway crews time to treat the ice, state police said.

“This type of icy weather is especially dangerous for driving, and even walking was challenging … on the layer of ice covering roadways, alleys and walkways,” Tina Kingsbury, the Goshen police spokesperson, said in an email. “As always, we encourage residents to slow down and use extra caution when traveling in these weather conditions. Even driving at slow speeds there can be a loss of vehicle control on the type of ice we experienced.”

National Weather Service data shows the Goshen area had snow, freezing rain, fog and mist throughout Wednesday, from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m.

Source :
One killed amid rash of weather-related crashes