Witness: wet roads cause fatal accident in New Carisle
Posted: Dec 15, 2011 1:57 AM EDT | Updated: Nov 6, 2014 2:55 PM EDT
NEW CARISLE, Ind. -- The fatal accident happend around 4 p.m. Wednesday evening on John Emery Road just outside New Carisle.
Witnesses says the bad weather is to blame for the crash that left one young woman dead and shut down the South Shore Line for the rest of the day.
Drivers say a woman in her early 20s rolled her SUV right into a power pole that operates a stretch of railroad tracks for the South Shore Line.
ABC 57 talked to the only driver on the road that stopped to call 911 when she saw the accident happen.
Heather Stantz was driving down John Emery Road when she saw a green Chevy Blazer speeding towards her. Moments later she says she watched in horror as the car hydro-planed and swerved off the road towards the tracks.
"She ended up darting into the grass, flipped once, then flipped about another four feet in the air and hit the telephone pole," says Stantz.
"It was totally upside down and the girl was hanging outside the truck".
Stantz says she immediately pulled over and called 911. As a trained medic she has seen bad accidents like this before, but calls this one tramatizing.
"I was just more shocked. I justed didn't want her sliding into us and hit me and my kids".
When Stantz checked on the girl she had no pulse and says she was pretty banged up.
"She was wedged underneath the truck from the side. I feel sorry for her family, I really do. She was young".
Stantz says her heart goes out to the family tonight who is suffer a tragic, unexpected loss.
Nipsco was called out to the accident and was there for hours replacing the damaged pole to restoring power to its customers.