It’s unclear just
how long westbound I-94 just west of the Ind. 49 exit was closed on
Wednesday morning--unclear because the Indiana State Police never released a
report on the semi crash which caused the closure--but it appears to have
been for hours.
The crash occurred
around 4 a.m., the Chesterton Fire Department said, and more than six hours
later all lanes of westbound I-94 were closed at the 26 mile-marker, with
the ISP diverting motorists off at Ind. 49 and directing them to bypass the
clot via U.S. Highways 20 and 12.
That closure had
the effect, however, of preventing the CFD from responding to a second semi
crash, this one in the eastbound lanes at the 25.5 mile-marker, Capt. Tony
Coslet told the Chesterton Tribune today.
To get to the
scene, the CFD would had to have come in through the back door, by joining
the line of diverted motorists on U.S. 20 or 12 to go westbound around the
closure, then turning around and entering eastbound I-94 at the Porter/Burns
Harbor interchange.
Instead, Coslet
said, the CFD asked the Porter Fire Department and Burns Harbor EMS to
respond, which they did.
Porter Fire Chief
Lewis Craig, for his part, called the scene pretty routine, after an
eastbound semi left the roadway to the south, banged up against 75 feet of
guardrail, traveled down an embankment, then hit a tree and came to rest
leaning against it, not far from the Amtrak rail line. There was no fire and
no need for extrication. Approximately 150 pounds of oil dry were applied,
he said.