4 killed in weekend crashes on I-65

One involved a wrong-way driver hitting another vehicle head-on

Interstate 65 proved to be deadly over the holiday weekend, as four people and three dogs were killed in two separate crashes near Crown Point.

The first one happened around 12:04 p.m. Nov. 26, when Indiana State Police Troopers were sent to the 247-mile marker at U.S. 231 for an SUV traveling northbound in the southbound lanes, ISP spokesman Sgt. Glen Fifield said. Fifield said someone reported a multi-vehicle crash at the 248.2 mile marker two minutes after the SUV was spotted.

Preliminary investigation into that crash indicates the SUV — a 2015 Chevy Equinox — had been involved in a minor accident at a gas station along U.S. 231, and, as it fled the scene, it entered I-65 on the wrong direction, Fifield said. The Equinox ended up hitting another vehicle head-on, and a third vehicle hit it after it hit the first vehicle, he said.

Ali Sebastian, 28, of Crown Point; and William Stepp, 48, of Wheatfield, were pronounced dead at the scene, according to the Lake County

Coroner’s office; autopsies were scheduled on the two for Monday, it said. A third driver sustained non-life-threatening injuries.

Then, at 7 a.m. Nov. 27, troopers responded to a single-vehicle crash further south in I-65 at the 240-mile marker exit to Indiana 2 in Lowell. ISP Trooper James Brasseur said in a release that preliminary investigation indicates a blue Chevy Cruze was traveling northbound when it ran off the road “for unknown reasons.” The car hit a tree, which caused it to stop and burst into flames, Brasseur said.

Witnesses were able to get the driver out of the car but couldn’t get the passenger — nor the three dogs with which they were traveling — out before the car became engulfed, Brasseur said. The group was declared deceased at the scene; the Lake County Coroner’s office hasn’t yet identified them pending family notification.