"A two-vehicle crash just south of Pokagon State Park on Interstate 69 Wednesday night sent debris flying, caused damage to three passing tractor-trailer rigs and forced the closure of a section of the highway for more than seven hours.

The crash, which sent large chunks of a concrete barrier onto the highway, occurred about 10:15 p.m. in a construction zone where the Steuben County Road 400 overpass is being reconstructed and traffic is reduced to one lane.

A second, unrelated crash in the county Wednesday sent an 8-year-old Kendallville boy to the hospital with facial injuries.

In the first crash, Jim S. Carcione, 74, of Wolcottville merged onto I-69 southbound at the Pokagon State Park exit near Angola in front of an Estes Express Lines tractor-trailer rig traveling south and driven by Daniel D. Thompson, 56, of Lapeer, Mich., a report from the Steuben County sheriff said.

A yield sign for traffic entering the highway is posted at the exit in the construction zone.

When Thompson’s rig collided with Carcione’s 2001 Buick, it crashed through a concrete barrier, throwing the concrete into the northbound lane, the report said."

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