A former Chesterton resident has died of injuries sustained in a three vehicle accident on Sunday on U.S. Highway 421, the LaPorte County Sheriff’s Police said.

The victim was identified as Eugene Joseph Jr., 42, of Westville. LaPorte County Coroner John Sullivan told the Chesterton Tribune today that Joseph died of internal injuries on Monday in the Intensive Care Unit of St. Anthony Memorial Health Center in Michigan City.

According to police, at 9:10 p.m. Joseph was southbound on U.S. 421 in a 1998 Ford F-150 when he collided with a semi-tractor trailer turning left from northbound U.S. 421 into the Gas City truck stop approximately 400 feet south of C.R. 300N. The rear of the trailer then struck a third vehicle waiting to exit the truck stop.

Police said that the semi trailer sustained severe damage as a result of the impact.

The trucker was identified as Ubaldo Palacios, 24, of Toledo, Ohio; the driver of the third vehicle, as Ryan E. Nash, 18, of Wilmington, Ill. Neither Palacios nor Nash was injured in the crash, police said.

An accident reconstructionist’s report was pending, police said, but the responding officer listed two contributing circumstances to the crash: failure to yield on Palacios’ part--the primary cause--as well as unsafe speed on Joseph’s part.

Police also said that Joseph registered a blood alcohol content of .257 percent on a blood test conducted at the hospital.

The responding officer’s report indicates that Palacios was not cited in connection with the crash.

A full obituary appears on the back page of today’s edition of the Tribune.

Posted 2/25/2009