Crews responded yesterday to an accident on U.S. 6 between Bremen and Nappanee. (Photos provided)

Crews work to extricate the driver of one of the vehicles.

BREMEN — Shortly after 3 p.m. Monday afternoon, July 18, troopers from the Bremen State Police Post and area emergency personnel responded to the report of a head-on two vehicle crash on U.S. 6 east of Beech Road.

Officers arrived to find a 2006 Ford Fusion with heavy front-end damage disabled in the middle of U.S. 6. The second vehicle, a 2002 Ford Explorer, came to rest off the north side of the road.

The driver of the Fusion, 77-year-old Bremen resident, Francis Pugh, was pinned in his car and had to be extricated by the Bremen Fire Department. Pugh was airlifted to South Bend Memorial Hospital, where he was treated for injuries to his lower body. The driver of the Explorer, 45-year-old Vassiliy Rematchik, Elkhart, was also trapped in his SUV and required extrication before he could be transported to Elkhart General Hospital. Rematchik sustained internal and leg injuries as result of the accident.

Pugh, who was driving east bound on U.S. 6, purportedly drove left of the center for unknown reasons, striking the front drivers side of Rematchik’s SUV. The force of the collision sent the SUV off the road and into a farm field.

The accident remains under investigation at this time by the Indiana State Police and drugs or alcohol do not appear to be a factor.