Edna Mast of Goshen Dies in Three-Vehicle Crash on Dangerous Stretch of State Road 13 near Middlebury
A 2007 Freightliner semi driven by James Everett of Three Rivers, Michigan, crashed into two cars on State Road 13 south of the intersection of County Road 24 Monday afternoon around 2:30 p.m. Goshen resident, Edna Mast, 68, was pronounced dead on the scene in the chair-reaction crash. Witnesses say that Mast had slowed to avoid a bicyclist and a 2000 GMC Jimmy, driven by Donald Smith, 38, of Elkhart, also slowed.
The semi driven by Everett saw the Buick slowing but did not see any brake lights. Everett said he swerved to try and avoid the collision but was unable to, striking the Jimmy, which in turn, struck the vehicle driven by Mast. Smith’s vehicle veered off the road, overturned and hit a fence. After Everett collided with Mast’s vehicle, the Buick careened off the road, then struck a rock and a tree.
Patrolman Jeremy Overmyer of the Elkhart County Sheriff’s Department reported that Everett was not hurt and Smith was taken to IU Health Goshen Hospital as a precaution but had no apparent injuries.
According to local residents, it was not the first fatality on that stretch of State Road 13. Sandi Hoover, who lives nearby stated that “We had a fatality in our front yard in ’03, from a semi driver. It’s speed and the cops need to patrol this road more, you never see very many cops going up and down this road and the semis are running like crazy.” Other residents also voiced concern about the road becoming more and more deadly and hoped that speeding could be curtailed. Kim Gregory, who lives across the street from the accident scene stated “There’s way too much speeding going on here, we see people drag racing down the road. There’s a lot of children out here, we have children, almost everybody in our neighborhood has children and there’s Amish children everywhere.”
None of the drivers involved in the accident were ticketed or arrested as a result of the crash. If you have any additional information about this crash, please contact Mario Massillamany of Starr Austen & Miller, LLP at (574) 722-6676.
[Sources: ETruth, Goshen News]