[Southsider2k12]

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...95975643645.txt

Woman in crash faces long, tough recovery

By Stan Maddux
For The News-Dispatch
Published: Thursday, February 11, 2010 4:18 AM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — A woman faces a long recovery from a leg shattered in a collision Tuesday with a block of concrete weighing 3,000 pounds that fell from a flatbed trailer on U.S. 12 at Mount Baldy.

Tabatha Smaluk, 26, Chesterton, was transferred from St. Anthony Memorial to Memorial Hospital, South Bend.

“I’m not doing too well. My leg and foot are broken in like 15 different places,” said Smaluk on Wednesday, unable to control the tears during a telephone interview from her bed.

According to Michigan City police, Smaluk at about 12:30 p.m. Tuesday was westbound on U.S. 12. Molds on the trailer weighing 3,000 pounds apiece broke loose from the straps holding them onto the flatbed as the oncoming semi was rounding a sharp right-hand curve. Smaluk had no time to avoid one of the molds, which pushed the engine into the driver’s side compartment. Her steering wheel and gas pedal were left just inches apart, her husband, Jake Smaluk, said.

After reviewing the X-rays, Jake said his wife faces multiple surgeries and may never walk unassisted again.

“There were bones turned 180 degrees from where they should have been,” Jake said. “It was a complete mess.”

Tabatha was returning home from Blue Chip Casino, where she has worked in one of the restaurants the past five years, he said.

“This is a pretty traumatic injury,” said Jake, who revealed numerous pins have been inserted into Tabatha’s leg to hold the bone fragments together. Other surgeries will follow to aid the healing process.

“She has spent most of her time crying,” Jake said.

The semi driver, Jesus Ocampo, 34, Berwyn, Ill., was transporting about a dozen molds from a steel mill in the Chicago area to Lake Recycling in Michigan City.

Bill Harvey, a tow-truck operator for Cloverleaf Garage in Michigan City, said the molds were to be crushed and converted into new molds.

According to police, Ocampo was cited for failing to properly secure his load.

Both lanes of U.S. 12 were closed to allow for the cleanup of the molds, which broke into large and small pieces upon impact with the van and asphalt.

With help of heavy equipment from the city, Harvey said, his firm was able to remove all of the softball- and golfball-sized concrete debris in about one hour.

“There were pieces everywhere,” Harvey said.

[Southsider2k12]

http://www.thenewsdispatch.com/articles/20...fb380155362.txt

Woman injured in crash on U.S. 12



Dave Hawk/The News-Dispatch Michigan City Police Dept. Traffic Division Sgt. Jeff Loniewski photographs the scene of an accident Tuesday afternoon on U.S. 12 just west of Mount Baldy.
By Deborah Sederberg
Staff Writer
Published: Wednesday, February 10, 2010 4:18 AM CST
MICHIGAN CITY — A woman was injured Tuesday in an accident on U.S. 12 near the entrance to Mount Baldy when she crashed her van into a 3,000-pound pre-cast concrete object that had just fallen from a flat-bed trailer, according to a Michigan City Police Department accident report.

Sgt. Jeff Loniewski, chief of the traffic division, was at the scene of the 12:28 accident. According to his report, Jesus Campo, 34, Berwyn, Ill., was eastbound on U.S. 12 in a 1999 Freightliner Transcraft owned by J. Fastline Inc., Berwyn, when three 3,000-pound pieces of concrete on pallets came loose and landed in the westbound lane of U.S. 12. Campo was negotiating the sharp eastbound curve east of the U.S. 12 intersection with Beverly Drive.

At that point, Tabatha A. Smaluk, 26, 520 Hjelm Road, Chesterton, was westbound in her green 1998 Plymouth Voyager, and could not avoid crashing into one of the concrete objects, the report indicates.

According to the report, the Plymouth sustained substantial damage. Smaluk complained of pain to her knee, lower leg and foot and was taken by the La Porte County Emergency Service to St. Anthony Memorial for treatment of her injuries which Loniewski described as “non-life-threatening.”

Loniewski cited Campo for operating a vehicle with an insecure load.