LOUISVILLE, Ky. (WDRB) – One person died in a crash early Wednesday involving four tractor-trailers on the Interstate 65 southbound off-ramp to Memphis Blue Lick Road in southern Indiana.
It happened just before 5:30 a.m., according to a news release from the Indiana State Police post in Sellersburg. A 911 caller reported a semi truck had rear-ended another semi on the ramp.
When first responders arrived at the scene, they found the driver of a 2017 Volvo semi-truck trapped in the cab of the tractor. He was pulled from the wreckage with a head injury before being flown to UofL Hospital in Louisville for treatment.
A female passenger was unresponsive when she was pulled from the sleeper compartment of the cab. She was pronounced dead at the scene, according to the news release.
There’s no word on the driver’s condition at this time.
Investigators believe three semi tractor-trailers were parked in the right emergency lane of the off-ramp before the crash. The Volvo was headed south on the interstate and was taking the exit ramp when “the Volvo traveled off the right side of the exit lane and clipped the front end of the first parked semi.” It then continued off the right side of the ramp, colliding with the rear of a second parked tractor-trailer.
“As the black Volvo continued forward, it lifted and traveled underneath the trailer of the second truck until it collided with the rear of the second tractor and came to rest,” according to the release. “The collision also pushed the second tractor into the rear of a third parked truck and trailer.”
Police said the driver of the second tractor-trailer was taken by ambulance to UofL Hospital in Louisville with injuries that weren’t considered life-threatening, according to the release.
The ramp was closed until 1 p.m., but the interstate remained open while crews cleared the scene.
An ISP Crash Reconstruction team is handling the investigation.