A driver seriously injured when a car crashed into a utility pole Monday afternoon in northwest Indiana is believed to be the same driver involved in a hit-and-run crash moments earlier.
Porter County sheriff’s officers responded about 1:30 p.m Monday to a single-vehicle rollover crash on State Road 2 near County Road 100S, just south of Valparaiso in unincorporated Boone Township, according to the sheriff’s office.
The vehicle, a red 1994 Oldsmobile Cutlass, had been northbound on State Road 2 when it went off the roadway to the east, “striking a utility pole, an embankment and subsequently rolling over, ejecting the driver,” a statement from the sheriff’s office said.
The driver, whose identity is being withheld, was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital with serious internal injuries, police said.
As officers were investigating, they learned the same vehicle had just been involved in a hit-and-run crash on State Road 2 near Southfield Lane, less than 2 miles south of the single-vehcile crash.
The driver of a white furniture delivery truck was rear-ended by a maroon or red car, police said. The driver of the truck was uninjured.
He told police the car came up from behind at a high rate of speed, struck the rear of the truck, then passed it at “excessive speeds continuing northeast on State Road 2,” police said.
Speed is believed to be a contributing factor in both crashes, while toxicology results are pending.
