By Tribune Staff Reports
Indiana State Police said a pedestrian died after being struck by a semi in the southbound lanes of Interstate 65 near the 58-mile-marker in Bartholomew County just north of the Jackson County line.
Police were sent to the scene at 3:30 a.m. Monday, which is at the north end of a construction zone where an Indiana Department of Transportation contractor is widening I-65 from two lanes to three from Walesboro to Seymour.
It is the sixth fatality in the construction zone since work began on the project, according to state statistics.
Trooper Matt Holley, a member of the Indiana State Police Versailles Crash Reconstruction Team, said a woman, identified as Jarlene Hargrove, 31, of Cincinnati, Ohio, had been traveling southbound on I-65 near the 58-mile-marker in a 2005 Cadillac sport utility vehicle. Hargrove’s vehicle left the roadway and became stuck in the median.
For an unknown reason, Hargrove left her vehicle and walked into the southbound lanes of I-65, state police said.
Hargrove was then struck by a southbound 2015 Volvo pulling a trailer, being driven by Christopher A. House, 44, of Bardstown, Kentucky. A 2016 Freightliner pulling a trailer, being driven by James E. Gause Jr., 49, of Marion, South Carolina, then struck the rear of House’s vehicle.
Hargrove was pronounced dead at the scene by Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting.
Neither Gause nor House were injured in the crash. Toxicology results on Hargrove, Gause and House are all pending at this time, and the investigation is ongoing, state police said.
The southbound lanes of I-65 were closed for nearly three hours for crash investigation and cleanup.
Assisting at the scene were the Bartholomew County Sheriff’s Department, Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, Columbus Police Department, Columbus Regional Health EMS, Columbus Township Fire Department and Bartholomew County Coroner’s Office.
