The Tribune-Star
One state prisoner sustained life-threatening head injuries on Friday morning after a tractor-trailer rammed into the back of a prison van on Indiana 46 just south of Interstate 70, authorities said.
Another prisoner was hospitalized and two correctional officers also were treated at Terre Haute Regional Hospital, according to Doug Garrison of the Indiana Department of Correction.
The unmarked state van transporting the prisoners was rear-ended by a tractor-trailer at about 10 a.m. in a construction zone near Moyer Road, where work is underway on the Indiana 641 bypass.
The inmate suffering the worst injuries was taken to Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis. The other prisoner in the transport vehicle sustained a broken hip and pelvis. He was listed in fair condition at Terre Haute Regional Hospital, Garrison said.
The Vigo County Sheriff’s department would not release the inmates’ names on Friday.
Correctional officer Kevin Kirkland, 52, told the Vigo County Sheriff’s Department that he was traveling south on Indiana 46 when he was directed by a construction flagman crew member to stop. Without warning, a southbound tractor-trailer rear-ended the stopped DOC transport vehicle. Officers Kirkland and Rick Phillips, 57, of Rockville, suffered non-life-threatening injuries.
The tractor-trailer driver, Joseph B. McCain, 49, of Indianapolis, told police he fell asleep and does not remember hitting the van.
Garrison said the prisoners were being taken from the Putnamville Correctional Facility to the Wabash Valley Correctional Facility at Carlisle. They were both wearing ankle shackles and handcuffs during the transport and there was no danger of escape after the accident occurred, he said.
Transporting prisoners between facilities is a routine procedure, Garrison said.
Alcohol and controlled substances were not a factor in the crash, police said.
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