(Jasper County, IN) - An accident on I-65 in Jasper County left a bus driver in critical condition.

On Thursday around 11:15 p.m., State Police responded to the scene of a collision between a school bus and a semi on northbound I-65 about two miles north of the Fair Oaks exit. Troopers found the school bus in the right ditch.  The driver of the bus was its only occupant. He was conscious but pinned inside the vehicle. It took several hours for first responders to safely extricate him from the wreckage.  He was transported to Franciscan Health Hospital in Rensselaer and later taken to a hospital in Chicago for treatment of potentially life-threatening injuries.

The semi involved in the crash initially drove away but was located later at a nearby truck stop with significant damage. The driver of the semi, 57-year-old Aregay Tesfay Gebremariam from Atlanta, Georgia was taken into custody and transported to the Jasper County Jail.  He faces preliminary charges of Leaving the Scene of a Crash Involving Catastrophic Bodily Injury, a Level 4 felony.

An investigation is ongoing, pending inspections of both vehicles. Alcohol and drugs are not suspected to be factors in this crash.