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  • Shattered: A wrecker driver carries accident debris to a wrecked sport utility vehicle that rear-ended a semi trailer at about the 17-mile marker of I-70 on Tuesday evening. (Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis) Jim Avelis

    MET062512accidents1.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Long wait: Traffic on I-70 stretches west from the Fruitridge overpass toward US 41. A series of accidents kept the pace slowed a good part of the day Tuesday. Jim Avelis

    MET062512accidents backup.jpg

  • Tribune-Star/Jim Avelis Deadly day: An ambulance heads away from an accident on I-70 about 8 p.m. Tuesday. The accident, at about the 17 mile marker, was just one of several along the Interstate Tuesday. Jim Avelis

    MET062512accidentambulance.jpg

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June 27, 2012

Fatal night on I-70 claims life of Indianapolis woman

Cement truck rolled onto SUV she was riding in

Brian Boyce The Tribune-Star

TERRE HAUTE — Not a week after reporting a spike in roadway fatalities this year, emergency responders were swamped with at least five accidents — and at least one fatality — believed to involve Interstate 70 on Tuesday evening.

Killed in the accident was Margaret Mathews, 73, Indianapolis, a passenger in the rear seat of a sport utility vehicle. She was pronounced deceased at the scene of blunt force trauma by Putnam County Deputy Coroner Steve Walters.

The fatal accident in Putnam County at the interstate’s 30-mile marker involved a 35-ton cement truck and a SUV, and injured two in addition to the deceased, said Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts. That crash occurred in the eastbound lanes at 4:14 p.m.

The cement truck, driven by William R. Lindeman, 51, Spencer, was traveling east on I-70 when it attempted to negotiate around a large section of freshly poured concrete in the eastbound driving lane. That square of soft concrete was reportedly 12 feet by 20 feet and 26 inches deep.

The left wheels of the cement truck appear to have dropped into the wet concrete, causing Lindeman to lose control, the report states. The truck, which was hauling cement and reportedly weighed about 70,000 pounds, then veered left and overturned onto an SUV.

The driver of the SUV, Georgia Mathews, 70, Indianapolis, and her husband, Willis Lee Mathews, 74, were in the front seat.

The SUV, according to the report, had been stopped in the eastbound passing lane because of construction.

Georgia Mathews was uninjured and freed herself from the SUV, while her husband remained trapped inside the vehicle for nearly 110 minutes before being extricated by the Washington Township and Cloverdale Township Fire Departments.

During the extrication, Curtis Wrecker Service had secured strap and chains to the cement truck and was able to lift some of the pressure off of the SUV. Willis Mathews was then airlifted by Air Evac helicopter to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis for treatment of lower leg and internal injuries. He was conscious during the entire extrication.

Seatbelts were reportedly in use by all in the Matthews vehicle.

Lindeman was taken to Putnam County Hospital for internal injuries not believed life-threatening.

Indiana State Police Sgt. Joe Watts had just finished performing first aid on victims from yet another accident about 8:30 p.m. when he was able to get back to finalizing reports involving the first from four hours prior.

Watts knew of four other accidents Tuesday night: one each at the 17-mile and 10-mile markers of the interstate, another just north of the Brazil exit on Indiana 59 and a fifth on U.S. 40.

At 9:40 p.m. at least one of the participants in the accident at the 17-mile marker had been transported to an Indianapolis hospital by air and his dog was reportedly killed.

“We want to constantly remind people that when they’re driving on an interstate system they need to be looking out ahead of them,” Watts said, adding investigators at that point were attributing some of the wrecks to the snarled lines of traffic backed up from the first near Putnam County.

Lines of traffic in the eastbound lanes could be observed from the Fruitridge Avenue overpass, nearly 20 miles away from the initial accident.

According to a media release issued by the Indiana Department of Transportation in May, a resurfacing project on Interstate 70 is scheduled through the end of July. The $6.3 million project awarded to Rieth-Riley has work under way from about six miles east of the Brazil exit to three miles west of Indiana 243. Lane restrictions are in place throughout the stretch.

Last week, Indiana State Police released reports demonstrating how deadly 2012 is shaping up to be.

Statewide, fatalities are up about 24 percent from 2011, and according to Putnamville District Commander Lt. Dan Jones, the rest of this year’s statistics are downright “alarming.”

“Statewide and locally, we are studying these districts and working to reverse that trend,” he said last week at a media conference where new speed-reduction initiatives were outlined.

Seventeen fatal accidents have been recorded in the Putnamville district — which includes Terre Haute — since January, just eight fewer than the 25 fatalities in the district for all of 2011. The number for all of 2010 was 35, according to information provided by the ISP.

Of the Wabash Valley fatalities, 12 involved single vehicles, while six involved people not wearing seatbelts. Most occurred between noon and midnight.

Tuesday evening, Watts said at least one of the night’s accidents involved people not wearing seatbelts and those individuals sustained some injuries.



Brian Boyce can be reached at 812-231-4253 or brian.boyce@tribstar.com.

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