(St. Joseph County, IN) - A serious accident on State Road 2 east of La Porte County sent three children to the hospital Sunday evening.
The accident happened at the intersection of Quince Road just after 5:30 p.m. A westbound white SUV collided with a black Ford sedan. The car, carrying five people, spun in the intersection, while the SUV careened off the roadway, taking out a utility guy wire and a privacy fence before coming to rest in a yard on the northwest corner of the intersection. The driver of the Ford told police that she had the green light, but the SUV came through the intersection at a high rate of speed.
According to police at the scene, the two adults in the sedan were uninjured. A teenager was removed from the back seat on a body board and transported to the hospital. She was believed to have a broken femur. A five-year-old appeared to be unconscious as he was carried to an ambulance. Police said his injuries were serious. About an hour later, another child involved in the crash suddenly required medical attention and was rushed to the hospital. The driver of the SUV, a 20-year-old male from Tinley Park, Illinois, was not injured.
Westbound lanes of State Road 2 were closed for several hours while members of the St. Joseph County Fatal Accident Crash Team finished an investigation.
Witnesses said an unidentified E.R. nurse from South Bend Memorial Hospital was among the first on-scene and helped stabilize the victims in the car.
Nearby resident Eric Clark heard the crash and came running to help. “My wife came in all hysterical,” he said, as he helped police direct traffic. “So I just came over to help.” Clark said he just moved in to his house on 2 last month, and he’s amazed at the disregard for safety at that intersection. “The speed limit here is 50 miles per hour, but nobody does it,” he said. “And mostly the people who speed through here don’t live here.”
This is the third serious accident in that area in about a week’s time. On June 30, 80-year-old Ann Richmond of Rolling Prairie was killed at the same intersection when a garbage truck struck her car.
