A Fishers youth in a convoy returning from a church camp died instantly about 1:45 p.m. Friday, June 15, when his sedan was hit broadside by a pickup on U.S. 421 about a half-mile south of Ind. 47.
The violent collision on a culvert bridge over the McCoy Ditch crushed the sedan’s passenger compartment and shoved one of the truck’s front wheels as far back as the dashboard.
Jordan R. Franklin was driving a 2008 Mitsubishi Eclipse south when for unknown reason he veered off the road, overcorrected, and veered into the northbound lane into the path of a 2003 Chevrolet S-10 extended cab pickup driven by Jacqueline S. Jansing, 29, 5800 block of N. Ind. 39, of Lebanon.
Franklin’s parents were in a vehicle that was also returning from the church camp. It was unknown if they witnessed the actual crash but did come upon the accident scene.
Jansing was air-lifted to St. Vincent Hospital, Indianapolis, said Boone County Sheriff’s Deputy R. T. Krise. She suffered internal and hand injuries. An infant in the truck, who was in a safety seat, was taken by ambulance to St. Vincent to be checked; the 1-year-old child suffered bruising from the child restraint seat’s straps.
Krise said witnesses told him Jansing did “everything she could” to avoid the crash, but Franklin had careened off a guardrail on the west side of the road and hit the east-side barrier head-on, leaving the car sideways in the northbound lane. Jansing had no time to react, BCSO Corp. Chris Burcham said in a press release.
Franklin’s car hit the east guardrail about a dozen feet from a gap that opened onto a driveway.
BCSO Lt. Brian Stevenson said it was too early to speculate on why Franklin lost control.
“He may have gotten off the pavement onto loose gravel and over-corrected,” Stevenson said.
Franklin, his parents, and other members of the Pilgrim Holiness Church, in Noblesville, were en route home after attending a church camp in Frankfort, a church member said.
Boone County’s Fatal Accident Crash Team responded to conduct the investigation. The highway was closed for approximately 2 hours.
Units from the Sheridan Fire Department and Zionsville Fire Department extricated Jansing and the infant from the pickup. The Sheridan Police Department and Indiana State Police assisted with traffic control.
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