Troopers say medical emergency may have caused trucker’s crash into Indiana scale house

Indiana State Police (ISP) have released new information on a trucker’s fatal crash through a weigh station on Wednesday morning.

The crash occurred shortly after 5 p.m. on September 8 at the I-74 Weigh Station in northern Dearborn County, near the Indiana/Ohio state line.

Troopers say that 63 year old Tennessee-based truck driver James G. Bristol was driving a 2021 Freightliner semi pulling a box trailer westbound on I-74 near the 171 mile marker, when “for an unknown reason, the vehicle left the travel portion of the roadway.”

The truck entered the weigh station and drove through the scale house, coming to a stop with the truck partially inside the building.

Tow trucks were used to remove the truck from the building in an attempt to locate the driver.

According to ISP, when Bristol was recovered “he was found to have sustained fatal injuries.”

Bristol was pronounced dead at the scene.

No one was inside the scale house when the crash occurred and no other injuries were reported

The scale house building was destroyed in the crash.

“Information obtained by investigators indicated that a medical issue may have played a role in the crash,” ISP’s Sgt. Stephen Wheeles said in a news release.

A truck driver who was parked at the weigh station told local outlet Fox 19 that he saw the truck veer off the roadway and strike the scale house at full speed without appearing to brake.

Police do not believe that drugs or alcohol were a factor in the crash.

An autopsy will be performed.

The incident is still under investigation. ISP is asking anyone who saw the crash to call the ISP Versailles Post at (812)689-5000.