Man charged with causing fatal Hammond motorcycle crash

A man has been charged with being intoxicated when he caused a crash that left a motorcyclist dead Wednesday night in northwest Indiana.

Matthew Kallen, 34, was charged with two felony counts of causing death while operating a motor vehicle and four misdemeanor counts of operating a vehicle under the influence, according to Hammond police and the Lake County state’s attorney’s office.

The crash happened at 8:15 p.m. Wednesday at Grand Avenue and 147^th Street, according to a police report.

Kallen was driving a 1995 red Toyota Tercel northbound on Grand Avenue when he turned left into an alley and struck a motorcycle heading southbound on Grand, according to the report.

The motorcyclist, 48-year-old Robert J. Nawrocki of Hammond, was thrown from the bike and killed, according to the report.

Kallen, of Munster, Ind., was ordered held on a $25,000 bond Thursday at the Lake County Jail.