Two arrested after crash on I-80/94
A Michigan City man and a Merrillville woman are in custody after a crash early Tuesday morning on Interstate 80/94, according to a release from Indiana State Police.
Around 3:45 a.m., troopers from the Lowell Post were dispatched to the eastbound lane of the interstate near the 7.7 mile marker near the Burr Street exit in Gary for a crash involving a semi and a car, according to a release from Sgt. Glen Fifield, the post’s public information officer.
A preliminary investigation by Trooper Keven Council showed that a 2015 Ford Taurus sideswiped a 2001 Freightliner, causing the semi to crash into the median wall, police said. The semi continued to travel over the wall and overturned, coming to a rest on its driver side. The semi also struck some construction equipment that was being operated by two construction workers.
The Taurus came to rest in the right ditch. Witnesses told police they saw a male flee from the crashed car. When police arrived, they located the abandoned Taurus. While police were still investigating the crash, a man and woman arrived at the scene and the woman gave information to the troopers that she had been driving the Taurus at the time of the crash.
Troopers were suspicious of her statements and determined that the man with her had been the driver of the Taurus at the time of the crash.
Police began an impaired driving investigation and Charles Luis Garcia Berrios, 30, of Michigan City, was arrested on two misdemeanor counts of operating while intoxicated, and misdemeanor counts of leaving the scene of a crash,
driving while suspended with a prior conviction and false informing.
Tamia A. Baylor, 35, of Merrillville, was charged with a misdemeanor count of false informing.
Police transported Berrios and Baylor to Lake County Jail. No one was injured as a result of the crash.