HAMMOND, Ind. (Sun-Times Media Wire) -
A Gary, Ind. teenager died after his motorcycle crashed into a semi truck Tuesday night on the Borman Expressway in northwest Indiana.
The crash happened at 8:19 p.m. in the eastbound lanes of the expressway (I-80/94) near Kennedy Avenue, and left the motorcycle driver pinned underneath the semi's trailer, Indiana State Police said.
The semi truck driver - Ernest Ashley, 50, from Moosehorn, Manitoba - saw a flash in his rearview mirror and realized his trailer was on fire, according to a statement from Indiana State Police.
The driver grabbed an extinguisher and discovered that something was underneath the trailer and on fire, the statement said, adding that the object on fire was later identified as a motorcycle.
With the fire growing out of control, the driver separated the trailer from the semi, the statement said.
The motorcyclists—identified as Jonathan P. Veenstra-Bell, 17—was found 1,000 feet away from the trailer, the statement said.
Emergency crews took Veenstra-Bell to Community Hospital in Munster, where the person later died, the statement said.
The 1994 Peterbilt semi truck was pulling a trailer loaded with 40,000 pounds of engine parts, the statement said, adding that no load was lost at the scene.
As of about midnight, the three right-most lanes of the four-lane expressway remained closed as crews speak to witnesses and reconstruct the accident.
No charges or citations have been filed and the cause remains under investigation, Indiana State Police said.
