Police: Medical issue might be cause of crash

MUNCIE — A multi-vehicle crash that left a Muncie man dead on Sunday might not result in any charges against the driver who caused it.

Muncie Police Sgt. Chris Kirby said the driver who struck three other vehicles along Memorial Drive had been taken to IU Ball Memorial Hospital to have blood drawn for testing, but by early afternoon police believed a medical problem rather than drugs or alcohol might have been a factor.

Kirby – who did not release that driver’s name – said he doubted charges would be filed, but added that police were still awaiting a medical diagnosis.

The fatal crash occurred around 8 a.m., and actually began with an earlier crash at another intersection. An eastbound pickup truck on Memorial rear-ended a car at the intersection with Liberty Street, then changed lanes and drove away, continuing east on Memorial at a high rate of speed, Kirby said.

Two other pickup trucks were waiting in the eastbound lanes of Memorial for a red light at the intersection with Madison Street as the speeding driver approached, according to Kirby. The fleeing pickup appeared to try to drive between them but instead struck both vehicles from behind, propelling a green truck driven by Everett Paine, 64, Muncie, across the intersection and into a pole at the southeast corner.

Paine was pronounced dead at the scene, with cause of death preliminarily listed as blunt force trauma and severe internal injuries, according to Deputy Delaware County Coroner Gary Zook.

The driver of the other pickup truck hit at Madison was taken to the hospital, along with the driver who struck them; no condition was available for either. The car hit at Liberty was damaged but that driver was not injured, according to Kirby.

The intersection of Madison and Memorial remained closed to traffic for almost six hours while the accident reconstruction team worked there; once they were done, a city street sweeper was brought in to clean up the debris, and the busy intersection reopened by 2 p.m.

Kirby said speed was certainly a factor in the accident, but the team was working to determine just how fast the speeding struck was going when it struck Paine’s vehicle hard enough to send it across the intersection with such fatal force.

Citing the likelihood of a medical issue having set off the tragic chain of events, Kirby told The Star Press, “The tragedy of this is going to be for everybody involved. It’s devastating all the way around.”

(Corey Ohlenkamp contributed to this report.)

Contact planning editor Robin Gibson at 765-213-5855 and follow her on Twitter @RobinGibsonTSP.