HORRIFIC SINGLE-VEHICLE FIERY CRASH KILLED 3 IN GARY, INDIANA. CHARGING HAVE BEEN FILED AGAINST THE DRIVER.
February
8, 2015
GARY,
INDIANA:
Charges
are pending against a Chicago man involved in a crash that killed three people
in northwest Indiana early Sunday, police said.
The
crash happened about 3:40 a.m. in Gary, Ind. on I-80/94, near the Cline Avenue
exit, Indiana State Police said in a statement.
Robert
M. Hayes, 22, was driving a 2010 Dodge Avenger westbound when he lost control,
police said. The Dodge went off the road, hit a concrete barrier wall on the
outer shoulder and flipped over on top of the wall before hitting a pole.
The
impact split the Dodge in half, police said. The vehicle then caught fire, but
passersby pulled over and helped put the flames out.
A
front-seat passenger was thrown out of the Dodge and was pronounced dead at the
scene with “massive trauma,” police said. A passenger in the back seat was
trapped between the barrier wall and vehicle, and was also pronounced dead at
the scene, police said.
One
of those passengers was identified as 20-year-old Timothy Riley, of the 500
block of Saginaw Avenue in Calumet City, according to the Lake County coroner’s
office. The other person, a female, remained unidentified Sunday morning.
A
third passenger, 21-year-old William Burton, was taken to North Lake Methodist
Hospital in Gary, where he later died, the coroner’s office said. Burton lived
in the 400 block of Campbell Avenue in Calumet City.
A
fourth person in the vehicle had internal injuries and was taken to North Lake,
but later transported to Northwestern Memorial Hospital.
Hayes,
of Chicago, was being treated for non-life-threatening injuries at North Lake,
police said. Charges were pending against him Sunday morning.