Looking at pictures of his wrecked Crothersville police car, Michael Weiler can’t believe he’s still alive.
In one from the scene of the wreck at 5:52 a.m. Aug. 14 at the 43.8-mile-marker along northbound Interstate 65, the rear of the upside-down black 2007 Ford Crown Victoria is mangled and a rear tire is off the wheel.
In another one inside a garage, the rear of the driver’s side of the car is smashed up to the driver’s seat, where the 45-year-old had been sitting that morning when a 2020 International semitrailer operated by Harvest Beacham, 37, of Indianapolis struck the car.
Weiler, who has been a reserve officer and chaplain for the Crothersville Police Department for five years, was in his car in the right lane and Chief Matt Browning was in his vehicle in the left lane. Both were providing emergency lighting and slowing traffic as E and B Paving workers picked up equipment and moved traffic barrels out of the roadway.
They had their emergency lights activated, but Beacham told state Trooper Jonathan Cain he saw that too late and could not brake fast enough to avoid hitting Weiler’s vehicle. Beacham said he was traveling around 66 to 67 mph.
The impact forced Weiler’s vehicle off the east side of the interstate, coming to rest inverted. Beacham’s truck continued north into the left lane and median, coming into contact with the stranded wire barrier.
Based on his training and experience, evidence provided and Browning’s statement, Cain said the primary cause of the crash was the truck’s failure to yield to an emergency vehicle.
“I look at the pictures of this accident and I’m like, ‘There isn’t any reason in the world why I should even be here.’ There is really no reason why I should even be alive,” Weiler recently said while sitting in a recliner in his Brownstown home and wearing a neck brace.
So why is he still here?
“God’s not done with me yet,” said Weiler, who has been a pastor for 10 years, including the past nine at New Life Missionary Baptist Church in Brownstown.
“There is something God wants me to do, and I think it’s tied to both the church and the ministry of reserving and chaplaincy that God’s not done with me yet,” he said. “There is something he wants me to be a part of, and he’s making this a big thing.”
Jumping into action
Weiler recently returned home after spending two weeks at Ascension St. Vincent Hospital — Indianapolis.
He, however, doesn’t remember much about that and nothing about the wreck.
“I only know what I’ve been told,” Weiler said. “I don’t even remember working interstate detail that night. I have no recollection of what happened, how it happened. I don’t remember getting pulled out of the car. I don’t remember getting put on a helicopter and flown to Indy.”
While recently talking to Browning, Weiler asked him how he handled watching the semi hit his car. According to Cain’s report, Browning radioed to Weiler “This truck’s not slowing down. Watch out” before the truck rear-ended the police cruiser.
“He said, ‘Mike, I’ll be honest with you, I didn’t know what to expect. That truck hit you so hard, knocked you so far out there, I was scared to death to walk up there. I didn’t know what I was going to find. I didn’t know if I was going to find one of my friends dead or what the deal was,’” Weiler said.
Weiler then thanked his chief.
“He came up there and he found that I was alive, and instantly, his training kicked in and he started making all of the right calls,” Weiler said. “He got the helicopter en route. He got EMS en route. He got Seymour Fire (Department) and everybody en route. Everything clicked.”
Weiler said he can’t thank the first responders enough. That included Shelly Acton with Jackson County Emergency Medical Services. Weiler said he refers to her and Tabitha Myers as his A team.
“Shelly said she crawled in the vehicle and started asking me questions,” Weiler said. “She said I was answering questions. I don’t remember this, but she asked me, ‘Do you know who I am?’ and I told her, ‘Yeah, you’re the A team.’ She said when I said that to her, she had to crawl out of the car ‘I didn’t know how to take it. I was emotional.’”
Former Crothersville colleagues John Amis, who now works for the Brownstown Police Department, and Alan Jones, an officer with the Jackson County Sheriff’s Department, were among those who responded.
“Those guys, they just did phenomenal, and it was just like ‘There’s my family again and they are helping me out,’” Weiler said. “It’s emotional. It’s hard to think about.”
That’s because the department is tight-knit, said Weiler, who wears badge 19-6.
“It’s a very tight group of guys, and they mean a lot to me. They really do,” he said. “I enjoy working with them. I make it a (priority) to work with every one of them. That’s one of the advantages of being a reserve. I can make my own hours, so I can work with every one of them if I want.”
Treatment and recovery
At the hospital, Donna Weiler learned her husband had most of his ribs broken, several cracked vertebrae and a punctured lung. He also had a subdural hematoma, concussion symptoms and an infection.
Due to the COVID-19 pandemic, only one person could be in the room with Michael for a 24-hour period.
“When I heard about (the wreck), all I could say was ‘God, please make him OK,’ and I kept saying that until I could get into the hospital with him,” Donna said. “Of course, they make it sound like ‘Come in and we’ll get you right in beside him.’ I get there and here’s the trauma family waiting room and you’re the only one there, and I was like, ‘I don’t like this.’”
Michael fortunately didn’t have to undergo any surgeries.
“They said there is some potential maybe in the future if the ribs don’t heal that there could be some surgeries,” he said. “Right now, they are thinking everything is going to heal naturally on its own.”
His injuries affected some of his short-term memory, which he said he will get over through therapy.
Michael returned home Aug. 28 and then got occupational and physical therapy lined out in Seymour. He does that three times a week for 45 minutes apiece, and that will go for six weeks.
He spends most of his time at home in his recliner, and if he gets up to move with a walker or do home exercises, he has to wear a chest brace.
“I’ll get up and walk around the room, make a couple laps around the room, do some leg lifts and just do anything I can to start building stamina, which if I can get rid of the rib pain, the stamina is going to come right back,” Michael said. “I don’t have a doubt about that because I’m just too stubborn not to keep moving.”
Michael said he has gone to church a couple of times, and he looks forward to the day he can return to pastoring and fulfilling his reserve officer duties.
Reserves are only required to work 16 hours a month, but Michael said he averaged between 100 and 120 hours.
“I absolutely love doing it because it gives me an opportunity to build relationships with people, it gives me an opportunity to help people that I don’t normally get to help and it gives me an opportunity to learn,” he said. “I learn about people that are caught in addiction and why they keep going back to that cycle. I’ve been able to help a few, and that’s something that absolutely blesses me.”
After he arrests someone, it’s a 15-minute drive to the jail in Brownstown, so that gives him time to talk to them.
“I can have a conversation with them, tell them ‘Hey, I don’t think that you’re a bad person. I just think you made some very poor decisions’ and show support to them and say, ‘Hey, I’m here to help you if you’ll accept the help,’” he said. “They take hold of that pretty good.”
Strong show of support
Michael realized the impact he makes as a pastor and reserve officer and also his seven years with the Brownstown Volunteer Fire Department through the outpouring of support since the wreck.
The mantel in his living room is filled with cards, notes and gifts he has received from people from Crothersville, Brownstown and beyond.
On Sept. 5, a fundraiser was conducted at the Crothersville-Vernon Township Volunteer Fire Department, where firefighters had a fish fry and Crothersville FFA fried pork burgers. Michael was there for about an hour.
“I just kept watching people come in and buy those fish sandwiches, and most of the time, people were from the back of the fire department all the way out to (U.S.) 31,” he said. “I got to the point I just couldn’t watch it anymore because it was so humbling, and I have no idea how to put my words of thanks into the right words. It blows me away. It’s very overwhelming.”
Browning later told him a woman drove up from Lexington, Kentucky, to buy a fish sandwich because she once had an interaction with Michael while he was on duty.
“She told him that there was so much respect from me to her that when she heard about this, she couldn’t help but come and show some support,” Michael said. “(Browning) said that’s not the only one that came from long distance like that. He said there were several people from Kentucky that drove up here because of it.”
Chad Wilson’s enrichment class at Crothersville Junior-Senior High School also raised money for Michael by selling prayer bows.
Browning, J.L. McElfresh and Dustin Steward with the sheriff’s department and Travis McElfresh with the Brownstown Volunteer Fire Department have organized a benefit ride for Michael on Sept. 27.
Jeeps, UTVs, ATVs, motorcycles and any other type of vehicle can participate. The cost is $20 per vehicle if registered by this Sunday or $25 the day of the ride at Heritage Park, 121 E. Walnut St., Brownstown. The ride starts at noon.
There also will be music, auctions, raffles, food and drinks at the park.
Travis McElfresh got to know Michael when he joined the fire department and later took his place as a reserve officer. He, Steward and Acton have done other fundraisers for Michael, too.
“He has given a lot of his time to the community, and we knew it was our time to step up and help him out,” Travis said of helping organize the ride. “We’ve gotten a huge support from everybody.”
Michael appreciates everyone’s support.
“You don’t think about the goodness that you put in people’s lives when you go out and do the job, but situations like this really show it,” he said. “There are people out there that evidently my life has touched their life in some way. That just absolutely blows me away.”
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If you go
What: Mike Weiler Benefit Ride
When: Noon Sept. 27
Where: Heritage Park, 121 E. Walnut St., Brownstown
Who: Anyone with a Jeep, a UTV, an ATV, a motorcycle or any other type of vehicle may participate; motorcycles will have a separate route; there will be pit stops along both routes
Cost: $20 per vehicle if preregistered by Sept. 20 or $25 the day of the ride (registration will be from 10 a.m. to noon at the park)
Details: There also will be music, auctions, raffles, food and drinks at the park; no outside alcohol will be allowed
Information: Call Travis McElfresh at 812-528-0148, J.L. McElfresh at 812-498-0858, Matt Browning at 812-530-0092 or Dustin Steward at 812-525-5837 or visit facebook.com/officerweilerbenefitride
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Help out
If anyone witnessed the Aug. 14 wreck involving a Crothersville Police Department car and a semitrailer on northbound Interstate 65 at the 43.8-mile-marker between Uniontown and Seymour or saw the truck driving on the interstate early that morning, contact Indiana State Police Trooper Matthew Holley at the Versailles Post at 812-689-5000.