At least two seriously injured in wrong-way I-65 crash near Hobart

At least two people were seriously injured, one in each car, when a wrong-way vehicle struck another car head-on on Interstate 65 near Hobart, Indiana, early Monday, October 26. They were taken to separate hospitals; later local reports described their injuries as life-threatening. No later medical outcomes are established in the available reporting. ^{1 17}

The northbound lanes reopened early Monday after being closed for hours. That ended the immediate traffic disruption, but left the central questions unanswered: how a car came to be traveling against traffic, and what happened to the people hurt in the collision. ^{1 2}

Indiana State Police accounts carried by local outlets place the crash in Lake County, south of Ridge Road and north of 61st Avenue, around Hobart. The consistent account is of a car traveling the wrong way in the northbound lanes and colliding head-on with an oncoming vehicle. WBIW described a two-vehicle crash. ^{1 2 17}

Monday’s reporting gradually established the human toll. CBS Chicago’s earlier October 26 account said police reported severe injuries, but that the number of injured people and their conditions were not immediately available. ABC7 Chicago’s later account established at least two seriously injured people, one in each car. The later count fills a gap in the initial report rather than contradicting it. ^{2 1}

ABC7 reported that one injured person was taken to University of Chicago Medical Center and the other to Franciscan Health in Crown Point. Police provided no additional information about the injured people in that account. The hospital destinations do not establish how either person’s condition developed after admission. ¹

WBIW identified the two injured people as the drivers and described their injuries as life-threatening. WRTV and WISH-TV also reported two people hospitalized with life-threatening injuries. Those descriptions establish the gravity of the injuries when reported, not a later prognosis or recovery. ^{17 18 5}

The distinction matters here: a highway can return to normal operation while the people involved remain in a medical crisis. Reopening is a traffic update, not evidence that the consequences of this crash have passed.

The exact collision time is unresolved. In their October 26 reports, ABC7 Chicago placed the crash at about 1 a.m., while CBS Chicago put it at about 2 a.m. Neither estimate should be treated as a precise, settled time. ^{1 2}

Emergency-call details add another piece of the chronology without resolving that difference. WBIW reported that dispatch received multiple 911 calls at approximately 2:36 a.m.; WRTV and WISH-TV described calls arriving a little after 2:30 a.m. Those are reported call times, not necessarily the moment the vehicles collided. ^{17 18 5}

It would therefore be misleading to use those calls to select one crash estimate as correct, or to turn the available times into an exact closure duration. The supported traffic account is narrower: northbound I-65 was closed for hours and was back open early Monday. ^{1 2}

The broad location is more dependable than the reported mile marker. WBIW gave mile marker 257.5, while WRTV and WISH-TV printed 157.5. That discrepancy has not been reconciled. The useful location remains the northbound stretch between Ridge Road and 61st Avenue near Hobart, rather than either disputed number. ^{17 18 5 2}

Police suspected alcohol or drugs may have played a role, according to ABC7. But the available reporting establishes no test results or other confirmation of impairment. Suspicion is not a finding that the wrong-way driver was impaired, and it does not explain where the car entered the opposing lanes. ¹