Bedford, IN : A two-vehicle fatal traffic accident on Monday, July 17, 2017

Investigation is continuing into a two-vehicle fatal traffic accident that occurred this afternoon at State Road 37 and Wesley Chapel Road between Bedford and Mitchell.

"They are ... working now, trying to positively ID some people, and following that, notifying next of kin," Lawrence County Sheriff Mike Branham told the Times-Mail at about 9:30 p.m. "We are still in the process. People went in a lot of differnet directions. We had three air ambulances coming into the scene and flying folks out. We are talking with multiple hospitals right now, trying to get all of the information together. There are two fatals so far that we are aware of."

Branham said the two people who are known to have died were in the same vehicle, which he chose to describe, at this point, only as a 2010 Ford. He said the vehicle had been eastbound from Wesley Chapel Road and was attempting to cross the southbound lanes when impact was made with a second vehicle. "They had not yet made it to the median because the crash occurred in the left lane of the southbound lanes," Branham said.

He said of the eastbound vehicle, "There were three occupants in the vehicle, two of which are deceased. The other one, we are still trying to find out what their condition is."

Branham described the second vehicle only as 1995 Ford, which was southbound on State Road 37. There were three occupants in that vehicle, as well. "Two of those occupants were airlifted for sure and right now we're trying to sort out who was in the third helicoper and where they went."

One of the two known victims was pronounced dead at the scene. "The other was airlifted and we were notified (the person) passed away," Branham said. "We got that information at about 8 p.m."

The 911 calls reporting the accident began at 5:18 p.m. "I just happened to stop in dispatch before I went home. ... I would estimate we got 15 to 20 calls in just a very short time."

Branham said the investigation is benefiting from the department's recent establishment of a Fatal accident Crash Team, called FaCT. The team is made up of officers who bring various levels of expertise to an investigation; among them are a reconstructionist, a detective and a patrolman.

"Everyone has assigned duties when they get there," Branham said, "and that makes the investigation run much smoother. It was very useful tonight. It has streamlined the process." He said all lanes "were closed for quite some time" and he added, "It would have been a lot longer had this (FaCT) not been in place."

In addition to the officers who responded, crews from both of the ambulance services in the county, the Marion Township Rural Fire Department and three air ambulances were at the scene.

Source :
Two fatalities confirmed in afternoon crash