One Dead, 15 Injured in LaPorte County Bus Crash

 

 
 

Snowy roads are to blame for a New Year’s Day collision between a pickup truck and a charter bus in LaPorte County that claimed a life. It happened around 3:30 p.m. on U.S. 20 just east of County Road 450 in the Rolling Prairie area, according to our reporting partners at WNDU-TV. A pickup truck driven by 36-year-old John Kallok of Griffith was westbound, lost control on the slick road and swerved into the path of a chartered bus. First responders had to cut Kallok from the wreckage using the jaws of life. He was pronounced dead at the scene from blunt force trauma. The 15 passengers on the bus were treated at area hospitals for non-life-treatening injuries. The bus was en route from Four Winds Casino in Michigan toward the South Bend area when the crash occurred. The driver managed to avoid striking a line of trees, drove through a ditch and skidded about 300 feet off the road into a cornfield.