INDIANAPOLIS — A dump truck driver stopped a wrong-way driver on Interstate 65 near Indianapolis early Sunday as the wrong-way driver headed toward a construction zone.
According to a report from the Indiana State Police, a trooper was patroling a construction zone on I-65 near Lafayette Road around 2:55 a.m. Sunday when he came across what appeared to be a disabled vehicle on the shoulder.
Two of the three northbound lanes in the area were closed for construction. State police said the trooper stopped behind the vehicle and activated his lights. As the trooper approached the vehicle, the car started to move forward and turn left at a slow speed. The trooper yelled at the driver to stop and the driver put the vehicle in reverse and backed into the guardrail, state police said.
The trooper ran to the front of the car and was knocking on the window with his flashlight trying to get the driver to stop. The Pontiac Grand Am then sped away driving south in the northbound lanes. The car was in the closed two lanes of the construction zone approaching a work area.
Troopers said a northbound dump truck driven by William Honey, of Greencastle, pulled into the construction zone and into the path of the car. The car struck the front of the dump truck. Neither Honey nor the driver of the car, Jonathan Hipolito, 20, of Indianapolis, were injured.
State police said the investigation revealed Hipolito was intoxicated at the time of the crash. He was taken to Eskenazi Hospital for evaluation and a blood draw.
Hipolito has been charged with two counts of operating a vehicle while intoxicated with a prior conviction, resisting law enforcement, driving while suspended and possession of marijuana.
"I was in the construction zone doing my job and radio chatter from a coworker was that there was a police chase in the zone," Honey told RTV6. "A car going south in the northbound lanes. I placed my truck to create a barricade in hopes to stop the guy, not to get hit by him. I was trying to protect my coworkers on the ground."
The investigation remains ongoing.
