An Indiana State Police trooper and a state police intern were taken to hospital with minor injuries late on Thursday night, October 29, after a black Infiniti SUV rear-ended the trooper's fully marked patrol car on eastbound Interstate 80 in Lake County, Indiana — and the SUV's driver, an Illinois man, was arrested on preliminary operating-while-intoxicated charges, Indiana State Police said.
Trooper Brayden Schrock was conducting traffic enforcement at about 11:15 p.m. on Thursday, parked on the inside shoulder of eastbound I-80 near the 1.4-mile marker, close to Indianapolis Boulevard and just east of the Illinois state line, when the SUV struck his patrol vehicle from behind, according to the state police account reported by FOX 32 Chicago and by WANE 15 in Fort Wayne.
Heavy damage, two people checked in hospital
Responding troopers found the Infiniti disabled and blocking multiple lanes of the interstate. Schrock's patrol vehicle had heavy damage to its rear and driver's side, police said. Schrock and an Indiana State Police intern who was riding with him were both taken to a hospital for treatment of minor injuries, and both were later released.
The SUV's driver was identified as Christopher T. Idom, 34, of Blue Island, Illinois — a south Chicago suburb. Police said Idom showed signs of impairment during the investigation, including bloodshot and watery eyes and the odour of alcohol. Those observations are part of the police allegation against him; he has not been convicted of anything, and the charges described below are preliminary.
Refused tests, then a judge-ordered blood draw
Police said Idom declined field sobriety testing and also declined breath and chemical tests after troopers advised him of Indiana's Implied Consent Law — the law under which drivers in Indiana are deemed to have consented to chemical testing when lawfully arrested on suspicion of impaired driving, and under which a refusal can itself bring licence consequences. A judge then approved a warrant for a blood draw, which was carried out at a local hospital, police said. Idom was then taken to the Lake County Jail.
Idom was arrested on preliminary charges of operating while intoxicated endangering, operating while intoxicated (first offence), and operating a vehicle with a suspended registration, according to Indiana State Police. He was also cited for unsafe lane movement and for operating without financial responsibility — that is, without the required insurance cover.
Why this stretch of I-80 matters to truckers and the diaspora
Eastbound I-80 at the Indiana–Illinois line is one of the busiest freight gateways in the Midwest: the combined I-80/94 corridor through Hammond and Lake County carries Chicago-bound and cross-country truck traffic day and night, and it is a route Punjabi and other South Asian truck drivers in the Chicago, northwest Indiana and Midwest freight networks drive constantly. A crash that leaves a vehicle disabled across multiple lanes in this corridor, late at night, is exactly the kind of scene long-haul drivers are trained to fear — a stopped emergency vehicle on the shoulder, flashing lights, and traffic that does not slow or move over in time.
Indiana, like other states, has a Move Over law: drivers approaching a stopped emergency vehicle with its lights flashing must change lanes away from it where it is safe to do so, or slow down if they cannot move over. Thursday night's crash is a reminder of why troopers repeat that message after every such incident — the officer in the parked car has no protection beyond the vehicle itself, its lights, and other drivers' attention.
Everything police say about impairment in this case is an allegation at this stage. The blood-draw results were not reported in the initial state police account, formal charges are a decision for the Lake County Prosecutor's Office, and Christopher Idom is presumed innocent unless and until he is proven guilty in court.
What happens next
The case now moves to the Lake County Prosecutor's Office, which decides what formal charges, if any, are filed on the preliminary OWI, endangering and suspended-registration counts and the two citations. The results of the court-ordered blood draw — the test that will show whether alcohol or another substance was in the driver's system, and at what level — had not been made public in the initial reporting. Trooper Schrock and the intern have both been released from hospital, according to police, and no update on any further injuries has been reported.