A truck driver slowed to avoid a stray dog in Indiana on Saturday, inciting a wreck that involved another tractor trailer, a car, and injured three people.
The incident happened at around 8:00 p.m. on June 9th in Putnam County, Indiana.
According to Wish TV News, 25-year-old trucker Harpeet Singh was traveling along Interstate 70 near mile marker 46 when he noticed some people chasing a dog standing in the roadway. Singh began to slow for the group, but the semi truck traveling behind him, driven by 32-year-old Saidul Islam, failed to notice the slowdown, forcing a sedan traveling in front of Islam’s tractor trailer to swerve onto the emergency shoulder where it was clipped by Islam’s rig, forcing the sedan off the roadway and rolling the vehicle multiple times before the rig crashed into the back of the first semi truck.
Both the sedan and the second semi truck were completely destroyed int he collision and the two people in the sedan, Anthony and Patricia Bailey, had to be extracted from their vehicle and were transported to a nearby hospital, Anthony with minor injuries and Patricia with possible fractures.
Islam was airlifted to a nearby hospital for fractures and facial lacerations. Singh was uninjured in the incident.
Upon further investigation of the incident, police say that Islam may have been distracted by interior panel warning indicator lights alerting him of potential mechanical issues at the time of the crash.
The incident shut down I-70 for around four hours and traffic was diverted onto US 231 as officials worked to investigate the incident and clear the wreckage.
The incident is still under investigation and it is not clear what citations, if any, were issued as a result of the incident.
The dog is thought to have been a stray that had wandered out onto the roadway.
