Greenwood man dies after driving wrong way, crashing on I-65

INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — A 29-year-old Greenwood man died early Sunday after crashing while driving the wrong way on Interstate 65 on the city’s south side, leaving two others injured and a section of the highway closed for several hours.

State police dispatchers around 1:09 a.m. Sunday started getting calls about a crash in the southbound lanes of I-65 near Southport Road.

A preliminary investigation indicates that Christopher Kattman, of Greenwood, was driving north in the southbound lanes of I-65 and struck a sport-utility vehicle. Two other vehicles were hit after that crash, ISP said.

First responders arrived to find the wreckage blocking all lanes of southbound I-65. A driver who was entrapped but alert and conscious was extricated and taken by medical helicopter to an area hospital. A second person in a different vehicle was taken by ambulance to an area hospital.

Kattman was found entrapped and unconscious and was pronounced dead at the scene.

Investigators were on the scene for nearly six hours investigating the crash, and ISP will work with the coroner’s office to learn if alcohol was a factor in the crash.

ISP said that while troopers were at the crash scene, two other alleged drunk drivers were near the scene. One person who drove around the emergency vehicles into the closed scene, when ordered to stop, backed into a parked fire truck. That driver, who police did not name on Sunday, was arrested on a charge of Operating While Intoxicated.

Another driver in the backed-up traffic was found to be intoxicated and arrested. Police did not identify that person, either.

The crash remained under investigation.