Driver dies after SUV overturns in crash with semi on I-80/94

One person died Sunday morning in a crash involving a semi-truck on eastbound Interstate 80/94 in Lake County, Indiana. Indiana State Police troopers were dispatched around 8:30 a.m. to the eastbound lanes near mile marker 7, close to Burr Street.

Troopers found a 2016 Lincoln SUV overturned on its driver's side in the south ditch. The female driver had been ejected and was lying next to the vehicle. She was alert and speaking with paramedics when the Gary Fire Department transported her to Northlake Hospital, but her condition deteriorated there and she died despite life-saving efforts.

A preliminary investigation indicates an eastbound semi made contact between its front left steer tire and the rear passenger side of the Lincoln. The impact rotated the SUV to the right, the driver lost control, and the vehicle entered the ditch, overturned, and ejected her. Police are still working to determine how the initial contact happened, and the Lake County Coroner's Office was expected to release the driver's identity Monday morning.

Why it matters

The Chicago-area interstates are some of the tightest, busiest truck lanes in the country, and a moment's overlap between a steer tire and a car's quarter panel can turn fatal. Watch your right side on merges, keep your blind spots clear through interchanges like Burr Street, and if you're in a four-wheeler alongside a truck, either pass decisively or fall back — don't linger in the no-zone.