Local woman killed in fog-shrouded collision with semi Saturday night

Fatal accident scene Saturday night on U.S. 40 near State Road 75.

STILESVILLE -- A Putnam County woman was fatally injured Saturday night in a two-vehicle accident on U.S. 40 where it meets the cut-through between State Roads 240 and 75.

The accident occurred in dense fog about 8 p.m. Saturday as a semi, driven by Brandon Thomas, 30, Woodland, Texas, hauling a Walmart trailer was pulling out of the shortcut section between U.S. 40 and State Road 240 onto U.S. 40, when it collided with the westbound pickup truck.

Suzanne J. Anderson, 71, rural Greencastle, was pronounced dead at the scene of the accident, which literally occurred only minutes before a Dense Fog Advisory was issued for west-central Indiana and Putnam County.

Putnam County Sheriff Scott Stockton responded to the scene at the Putnam-Hendricks county line, just west of Stilesville, noting that witnesses said the pickup truck was traveling in the passing lane and swerved to miss the rig, braking and veering right.

However, the pickup truck instead careened under the trailer, hitting it so hard, the sheriff said, that it shoved the trailer offline and knocked the camper shell off the pickup truck.

Sheriff Stockton listed the cause of the accident as failure to yield on the part of the semi driver with a contributing factor being the heavy fog at the time.

Thomas was reportedly uninjured but the semi driver was taken to Putnam County Hospital to have blood drawn, as required by law in such an accident.

In addition to Sheriff Stockton and the Putnam County Sheriff's Department, also at the scene were personnel from the Indiana State Police, the Jefferson Township Volunteer Fire Department, Greencastle Fire Department and Curtis Wrecker.