A tractor-trailer slammed into traffic that had slowed for a construction project Thursday morning, starting a pileup that killed eight people and injured two others, police said.Five people in a pickup truck were among the dead, Indiana State Police said. Four of them were Amish residents of nearby LaGrange County, Bristol Fire Chief William Dempster said.
The crash started around 6:45 a.m. on a rainy stretch of the Indiana Toll Road. The westbound lanes were narrowing to one for bridge construction over the St. Joseph River about a mile and a half ahead, and traffic had come to a standstill in the right lane as traffic merged into the left, said state police Sgt. Trent Smith. (Watch how much damage the tractor-trailer inflicted )
It wasn't clear why the tractor-trailer driver, Leonardo Cooksey, 31, of Mount Prospect, Illinois, did not slow down, Smith said. The semi rear-ended one vehicle, starting a chain reaction involving two other tractor-trailers and four other passenger vehicles, he said. He said warning signs had been posted along the highway up to three miles from the construction site.
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