A Ball State University student died early Monday morning when she collided with a sport utility vehicle and a semitrailer while driving the wrong direction on Interstate 69.
Andrea Tallant, a second-year student with freshman standing, hit a 2000 Ford Explorer and subsequently a semitrailer at about 1:26 a.m. while driving north in the southbound lanes of I-69, according to police and Ball State officials.
The driver of the Explorer, Jonathon Brown, 27, of Indianapolis, was injured and taken to Ball Memorial Hospital and transferred to a hospital in Indianapolis, Lt. Arlan Johnson from the Delaware County Sheriff's Department said. His condition is unknown.
At 1:15 a.m., police began receiving phone calls from a Ricker's convenience store east of the I-69 exit on State Road 332 reporting a possible impaired driver, Lt. Arlan Johnson from the Delaware County Sheriff's Department said. A second call reported the driver had left and was driving north on I-69 in the wrong lanes, he said. The caller might have been following the driver and gave the police a play-by-play, Johnson said. Delaware County Coroner Jim Clevenger said police were actively looking for a car driving erratically.
Johnson said Tallant entered I-69 at the SR 332 exit and drove about four miles in the wrong direction before she was hit.
There were no skid marks from the Explorer or the semitrailer, so Tallant might not have had her headlights on, he said. The police will continue to investigate the accident, Johnson said.
Clevenger said the impact killed Tallant. Johnson said whether alcohol played a role in the accident might not be determined for several weeks. Although Tallant was reported to be impaired, no one said they smelled alcohol on her, he said.
Clevenger said why Tallant was driving the wrong direction and why she was driving north of Muncie was unknown. She was from Carmel, and her parents said she was very familiar with the drive from Indianapolis to Muncie, Clevenger said. But Tallant's parents told him the SR 332 exit was not part of her normal route, Cleveneger said.
"The question is why she was out there at that time in the morning," he said. "She has no business that [her parents] can think of that would have taken her north of the area."
Johnson said I-69 was closed for approximately four hours and opened at about 5:15 a.m.
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