A child was airlifted to a Chicago hospital, and a second one taken to a local hospital, after the driver of a van they were in hit a wall along the expressway early Monday morning in Lake County.
An Indiana State Police Trooper responding to the scene around 4 a.m. at the 3.8 mile marker on I-80/94 found the van was heading eastbound when it first hit the right barrier wall, then crossed lanes and hit the center median wall head-on, ISP spokesman St. Glen Fifield said in a release Monday. Emergency workers found the driver — identified as Larry Haynes Jr., 36, of Chicago — and two children under the age of 10 injured from the wreck, Fifield said.
One of the children sustained potentially life-threatening injuries and was flown to Chicago, he said, while the other child was taken to St. Catherine’s Hospital in East Chicago. Neither had been properly restrained inside the van, Fifield said.
Haynes was taken to Community Hospital in Munster for serious injuries, Fifield said; as drugs and/or alcohol is believed to have played a factor in the crash, police requested a warrant for a blood toxicology screening. Those results are pending.
The Hammond Fire Department and Double T Towing assisted the ISP.
Michelle L. Quinn is a freelance reporter for the Post-Tribune.
