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One dead in Allen County crash

ALLEN COUNTY, Ind. (WANE) – One person is confirmed dead following a crash in Allen County Wednesday.

The collision involved two vehicles and happened just before 3 p.m. at the intersection of State Road 101 and State Road 37 in northeast Allen County. State Road 37 was closed from Springfield Center Road to State Road 101.

A red Chevy Cavalier was going south on SR 101 when it either failed to stop or stopped then pulled out into the path of a semi going west on SR 37, according to Allen County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Steve Stone. The driver of the car was pronounced dead on the scene. The Allen County Coroner’s Office will release the identity of that driver. Police said the driver of the semi wasn’t injured.

This crash happened just south of where a crash involving a semi and a minivan took place on May 21 that killed two sisters.

Jerry Foust, the senior transportation planner at the Northeastern Indiana Regional Coordinating Council provided WISH-TV’s sisters station WANE-TV with crash data at several intersections along S.R. 101.

The following information is from 2005 to 2014:

  • At Dawkins Road – 22 crashes overall and three fatal crashes.
  • At Old U.S. 24 – 30 crashes (this intersection has had a change in traffic since the Fort-to-Port Freeway was completed in 2012).
  • At S.R. 37 – 37 crashes overall and one fatal crash overall before Wednesday.
  • At Campbell Road – 2 crashes, which does not include last month’s fatal crash.

Foust said some intersections have been deemed as “hot spots” by his office. Those intersections are monitored and at times, Foust will talk with the road owner – a city, state, or federal department – to see what can be done to reduce crashes.

“What we look for is where those trends are occurring more frequently,” Foust said. “Is it a sight-distance issue or a speed-related issue? We may decide to try to get more law enforcement at a spot to try to get drivers to go slower or we may look at redesigning that part of a road.”

Foust added that S.R. 101 is a unique road as it not only has passenger vehicles, but also has a high number of commercial trucks and Amish buggies traveling on it, too.