Semi, SUV crash

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JASPER COUNTY — In the early morning hours of March 16th, the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office began receiving 911 calls of a serious traffic crash involving a semi-tractor flatbed trailer combination and a SUV in front of Love’s Travel Center located in the area of State Rd. 10 and Interstate 65. Jasper County Deputies arrived on scene a short time later to find a lone male occupant of the SUV entrapped inside the vehicle with obvious life threatening injuries. The operator of the semi tractor was still inside of his vehicle uninjured. Keener Township Fire and EMS arrived on scene to assist. A short time later, it was determined that the operator of the SUV was deceased from injuries sustained in the crash.

The preliminary investigation determined that the 2013 Peterbuilt semi-tractor carrying two steel coils on a flat deck trailer was exiting the Love’s Travel Center turning WB onto State Rd. 10. Evidence from the scene indicates that the operator of the 2021 GMC Terrain (SUV) was traveling eastbound on State Rd. 10, at a high rate of speed, when it impacted the trailer that was being pulled by the Peterbuilt semi-tractor. State Rd. 10 was shut down for a short time for crash investigation and clean up. All vehicles involved were towed for safe keeping pending further investigation.

The operator of the GMC Terrain has been identified as Justin A. Hardesty (30 years old) of Crown Point, Indiana. The operator of the Peterbuilt semi-tractor has been identified as Terral Brown (59 years old) of Adamsville, Alabama. Notification of immediate family members have been made prior to this release.

Assisting at the crash scene were the Jasper County Sheriff’s Office, DeMotte Police Department, Indiana State Police, Keener Fire Department, Keener EMS and Cheever’s Towing & Recovery.