Chesterton Tribune

 

 

WB I-94 closure bottles up CFD, forces PFD to respond instead to EB 94 crash

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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.

 

Posted 6/25/2015

 
 
 
 
 

 

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