July 24--Authorities said a truck driver from Lake Zurich apparently started a chain-reaction crash that killed five people, including two children, when he slammed into the back of another vehicle in a construction zone in western Indiana.
The Lake Zurich man, identified by police as Ruslan Pankiv, 34, was among the dead in grisly crash that occurred late Thursday night along Interstate 65 near Lafayette.
Police said Pankiv, who was hauling a tanker full of cooking oil, failed to slow down in a construction zone and crashed into the rear of a Toyota Yaris, which rolled into a ditch. Pankiv's truck kept going, police said, striking next a Honda Pilot and then another semi truck hauling a load of chicken wings before catching fire. The blaze also engulfed the Pilot and the second semi's trailer.
The crash killed the driver of the Pilot, 47-year-old Jill Buck of Greenwood, Ind., along with her sons, 8-year-old A.J. and 10-year-old Branson, authorities said.
Also killed were Pankiv and the driver of the Yaris, identified by police as Mikhail Stepanov, 41, of Lafayette. His passenger was injured.
"There are signs for about 20 miles down the interstate to tell you that you're coming into construction and that traffic is going to be slowing," said Indiana State Police Sgt. Kim Riley. "(Pankiv) apparently didn't see the signs, or wasn't paying attention, started to rear-end the vehicles, basically just plowed through the cars and ran into the rear-end of the second semi here."
Northbound lanes of I-65 in Tippecanoe County reopened around 6:30 a.m. Friday. Portions of the southbound lanes remained closed as authorities worked to clear cars and frozen chickens that one semitrailer was carrying. Lanes were expected to open before noon Friday.
Another tanker involved in the crash was carrying vegetable oil, which was expected to be pumped into another truck.
Associated Press contributed.
