3 killed when car falls 150 feet into Morgan County ravine
PARAGON, Ind. (WISH) – The Morgan County coroner on Monday identified three adults killed when a car crashed more than 100 feet into a ravine Sunday night.
Brett Bundy, 28, Jami Kinsler, 27, and Cassedy Brown, 25, all of Cloverdale, were killed when the vehicle they were in went off the road, airborne through a wooded area and down a small cliff behind Porter’s Cave on the north end of Butler’s Creek near where Baseline Road meets Drunkards Pike and Turkey Neck Road.
According to the Paragon Volunteer Fire Department, the fatal crash occurred around 10:15 p.m. Firefighters estimated the drop is 200 feet from the road to the ravine and said the car fell 150 feet before coming to a stop against some trees.
Autumn Wray, 31, lives near this intersection and said she was outside on the phone with a friend when she saw the white car, which she identified as a Volkswagen Jetta, driving past her home.
“My guess to the police was 80 mph at least,” she said, “and when they got down this way, I heard music so I assumed the windows were down and I actually screamed for them to slow down because I knew they weren’t going to make this corner. I knew it.”
Wray said she watched the car bump into a grassy space where the road makes a “T” intersection and lift off the ground and over the ridge. She said she could hear trees snapping as the car made its way down the ravine and the engine slowly puttered to a stop.
“When I got down there, I didn’t go all the way to the bottom, but I was there top of the hill. I just knew they were dead. I just knew,” she said, “But I yelled anyway. And I heard a little voice yell back at me. I thought it was a woman, but turned out it was a child.”
Wray said an 8-year-old boy called for help and she told him help was on the way.
“He’s like, ‘Hurry!’ I said, ‘They’re on their way, they’re coming, it’s going to be okay,’” Wray said. “I was like, ‘Keep talking.’”
She said by the time emergency responders arrived, the boy was singing his ABCs.
“I just thank God because that’s God. God is amazing and the fact that anybody could have survived that — that’s just all God,” Wray said.
Authorities say two of the three adults who died in the crash were ejected from the vehicle during the crash, and a third died inside the vehicle.
Firefighters said the 8-year-old and a 4-year old survived and were flown via helicopter to Riley Children’s Hospital at IU Health.
Wray said the 4-year-old was the 8-year-old’s brother and that people from two different families were in the car. She said authorities told her the boys’ mother was with them at Riley.
This particular intersection near the Owen County line does not have a guardrail, reflectors, warning signs or street lights. Wray told News 8 she thinks that must change.
“Between the two counties, let’s do something. Let’s put up a guard rail and reflectors up; let’s get a speed limit sign letting people know to slow down,” Wray said. “Let’s prevent this from ever happening again.”
Nick Sillivent, the assistant chief of Paragon Volunteer Fire Department, said that his department was holding its annual fish fry fundraiser when the crash happened. Since the whole crew was at the station for the fish fry, they responded quickly to Wray’s 911 call.
The terrain made the rescue difficult for emergency responders, and several people had to rig ropes to remove the children from the ravine, said Joann Stierwalt with Gosport Volunteer Fire Department.