A bus driver received potentially life-threatening injuries after a two-vehicle accident on I-65 on Thursday, Sept. 7. Photo provided by Indiana State Police.

Press Release

RENSSELAER — One person was seriously injured and another was arrested after a serious vehicle accident on I-65 in Jasper County.

Around 11:15 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 7, the Lowell Regional Dispatch Center received 911 calls of a crash involving a school bus and a semi on I-65’s northbound lanes at the 222 mile marker. This location is two miles north of the Fair Oaks exit.

Troopers responded to the scene and found a school bus in the right ditch. The bus’s driver was pinned in the vehicle, but he was alert. Preliminary investigation by Indiana State Police Trooper Zachary Ketring shows the bus driver rear-ended a semi in the right lane. The semi initially pulled over and Good Samaritans stopped to render aid to both drivers. However, the semi driver suddenly drove away.

While troopers and first responders attempted to extricate the bus driver, another trooper was able to locate the semi that left the scene at the Love’s Truck Stop on SR 10 in Jasper County. The semi’s trailer had substantial damage and it was quite apparent the vehicle had been involved in a significant crash very recently. The semi’s driver was also located and gave statements inconsistent with what happened.

The semi’s driver, Aregay Tesfay Gebremariam, 57, Atlanta, Ga., was taken to the Jasper County Jail. He is preliminarily charged with leaving the scene of a crash involving catastrophic bodily injury, a level 4 felony.

The bus driver, who was the bus’s only occupant, was trapped inside of the bus for several hours while the fire department worked to extricate him from the vehicle. Once removed, the driver was taken to Franciscan Health Hospital in Rensselaer and later taken to a hospital in Chicago for treatment of potential life-threatening injuries.

Alcohol or drugs are not suspected to be factors in this crash.