LAKE COUNTY, Ind. — A truck driver escaped injury after their rig overturned during an a wreck on Aug. 29 along the eastbound lanes of Interstate 80/94.
According to the Indiana State Police, a 2015 Ford Taurus side-swiped the 2001 Freightliner, causing the semi to crash into the median wall.
“The semi continued to travel over the wall and overturned, coming to a rest on its driver’s side,” an ISP report stated. “The semi also struck some construction equipment that was being operated by two construction workers. The Taurus came to a rest in the right ditch.”
Witnesses to the crash observed a male flee from the crashed car, the ISP said.
When troopers arrived, they located the abandoned Ford. While still investigating the crash, a male and female arrived at the scene, and the female gave information to the troopers that she had been driving the Ford at the time of the crash.
“Troopers became suspicious of her statements and were able to determine that the male subject that was with her had indeed been the driver of the Ford at the time the crash occurred,” the report stated. “An impaired driving investigation was then initiated, and the male was subsequently taken into custody and transported to the Lake County Jail. The female was also arrested.”
The Taurus driver, Charles Luis Garcia Berrios, 30, of Michigan City, Indiana, has been charged with operating while intoxicated, leaving the scene of a crash, driving while suspended (prior conviction) and providing false information.
His passenger, 35-year-old Tamia A. Baylor, of Merriville, Indiana, was also charged with providing false information.
The truck driver wasn’t named.
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