St. Joseph County – The Indiana State Police are investigating a crash that happened today on the Indiana Toll Road that involved a trooper from the Toll Road Post and the driver of an east bound SUV. The accident happened at 11:42 a.m. near the 76 mile marker in South Bend.
The trooper involved in the crash, Andrew Kocsis, 32, was covering a single vehicle personal injury accident that happened minutes earlier in the east bound lanes of the Indiana Toll Road. Apparently Kocsis had just returned to his police car after attending to the crash he was covering when his car was rear-ended by an east bound Ford Expedition SUV. The force of the collision then pushed his police car into the rear of the car from the original crash he was covering. The Expedition was being driven by Shane T. McAdams, 42, of Cedarburg, Wisconsin. Reportedly McAdams lost control of his vehicle when he drove over the ice covered bridge just west of the South Bend East exit.
Kocsis was transported to Memorial Hospital in South Bend with non life threatening injuries. Annette M. Ruth, 26, of Saint John, Indiana was also taken to Memorial Hospital for minor injuries she sustained from her single vehicle crash earlier. McAdams and their passenger were not injured in the crash.
Toll Road Post troopers had answered nearly a dozen calls for service since this morning on the five mile stretch of road between the 72 and 77 mile markers. Blowing snow, ice and the cold temperatures made this portion of the Toll Road treacherous today, commented Sergeant Trent Smith. We are asking the public to slow down and use caution. Unsafe speeds open stretches of road and icy bridge decks continue to create havoc causing several slide offs and accidents in the area.
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