Beech Tree News Network

The Kentucky State Police accident reconstruction team will be working periodically this week at the site of the Thursday-night collision on northbound Interstate 65 that resulted in six deaths.

Trooper Jeremy Hodges, spokesman for Kentucky State Police Post 3 in Bowling Green, said the team will be doing collision analysis at the site near the new Exit 30 interchange.

“They will be taking photos and doing more measurements that they couldn’t get the other night when it was dark,” said Hodges. “Folks need to be careful driving through there around the 30-mile mark northbound.”

Hodges said the northbound lanes in that area may have to be shut down temporarily.

Two passenger vehicles and two semi-trucks were involved in the wreck that occurred just after 10:30 p.m. Thursday on northbound I-65 just north of Exit 30 – the recently opened interchange that connects the interstate to the nearby Kentucky Transpark.

Members of the Boster family of Beech Grove, Ind. – who were traveling in a 2007 Hyundai ENT van, according to KSP – were confirmed as four of the victims Friday by Warren County Coroner Kevin Kirby and by KSP.

Lonny D. Boster, 59; his wife, Jonell Boster, 48; and their sons Lonny D. Boster Jr., 30, of Indianapolis, and Carl Boster, 17; were killed in the crash, as was family friend Robert Hogan, 74.

They were a few hours from home after a Florida vacation, according to longtime family friend Lisa Sommerville of Southport, Ind.

The sixth person killed in the crash was traveling in the other passenger vehicle, according to Kirby. The victim has not been identified, pending notification of relatives.

Hodges said a preliminary investigation shows the collision occurred in an area where road construction was underway and the interstate merges from three lanes to two. One of the semis – a 2016 Freightliner driven by Keith Vickers, 64, of Hamden, Ohio – was stopped in the right lane of the congested area with the two passenger vehicles behind it. A second semi, a 2014 Volvo truck and trailer, that was traveling in the same lane failed to stop, striking the trailing passenger vehicle and causing a chain-reaction collision.

The driver of the second semi, William Sowell, 58, of Milan, Tenn., was treated and released from an area hospital, according to KSP.

* * * 

Bowling Green Daily News

Date: 07-16-2017

Kentucky Press News Service