EVANSVILLE — The Vanderburgh County Coroner’s Office has identified the two men killed in a wreck on Interstate 69 as 32-year-old Dakota Campbell and 74-year-old Robert York.
Campbell and York were pronounced dead at the scene Friday evening after a motorcycle wreck on northbound I-69 near the South Green River Road exit set off a chain of events that killed both men, according to a Vanderburgh County Sheriff’s Office news release.
Deputies, Evansville police and personnel with the Indiana Department of Natural Resources were dispatched around 9:15 p.m. to a report of a crash with injuries on the interstate, the release said. When they arrived, they found two people in the roadway with serious, life-threatening injuries.
Evansville Fire Department personnel attempted lifesaving measures on Campbell and York, but they were pronounced dead at the scene.
According to the VCSO, a preliminary investigation found that the deadly incident got its start when a motorcycle traveling northbound on I-69 was involved in a single-vehicle wreck. A passing motorist stopped to check on the motorcyclist, turned on his hazard lights and got out of his vehicle.
A third vehicle, also headed north, moved into the left lane to avoid the stopped car and its flashing hazards. That vehicle then struck both the motorcyclist and the driver who had stopped to help, authorities said.
The sheriff’s office has not said which victim was the motorcyclist and which was the driver who stopped to render aid.
VCSO crash re-constructionists and detectives were led the initial investigation. A sheriff’s deputy certified as a “drug recognition expert” evaluated the driver of the third vehicle, the release said. Investigators do not believe drugs or alcohol were contributing factors, but a blood sample was taken and will be sent to the Indiana State Police Laboratory for testing, which is standard procedure in any crash involving a serious injury or death.