Ten people were injured in three traffic accidents within a 1-1/2-hour time frame Saturday morning in Kosciusko County. Among the injured was an Etna Green man who apparently drove his pickup into a train near Mentone.

Officers with the Kosciusko County Sheriff's Department traversed the county from north to south to north again to investigate the accidents.

Six people were injured in the first personal injury accident, which occurred at 9:58 a.m. Saturday on Ind. 19, 200 feet north of Moore Road, near Nappanee.

Three people were trapped in the vehicles for about 30 minutes until emergency personnel could extricate them from the wreckage.

Anthony K. Byers, 22, of Wakarusa, was the driver of a van that collided with a pickup driven by Patrick N. Mishler, 42, of Ind. 19, Nappanee. Both men and a front-seat passenger in Byers' van, Andrew G. Martin, 29, of Wakarusa, were reportedly pinned in the vehicles. Byers suffered an unspecified injury, Mishler suffered a cut to his chin and Martin complained of neck pain. All three were treated at Elkhart General Hospital.

Other passengers in Byers' van who were taken to EGH were Eugene Martin, 7, Wakarusa, who was checked for injuries, and Ira C. Martin, 33, CR 44, Nappanee, who complained of neck pain. Witnesses told emergency personnel that Ira Martin was initially unconscious, but he was alert by the time a crew from Nappanee Emergency Medical Service arrived on the scene.

Also injured was a passenger in Mishler's pickup, Kyle Mishler, 7, of Ind. 19, Nappanee, who suffered leg and eye injuries. He, too, was treated at EGH.

No information was available as to what caused the accident. Damage was estimated at $10,000 to $25,000 to Byers' van and $5,000 to $10,000 to Mishler's pickup.

Benjamin R. Hanes, 22, of East High Street, Etna Green, suffered head injuries when the pickup he was driving struck a train at 10:42 a.m. Saturday on CR 1000W, 2,300 feet south of Ind. 25, near Mentone.

According to a report at the KCSD, Hanes was southbound on CR 1000W and it isn't known whether he stopped or attempted to stop for the westbound train. Hanes' pickup struck the first engine on the two-engine, 100-car Norfolk & Southern locomotive. The pickup then spun around and hit the train again with the bed of the pickup, before being thrown into a ditch on the northwest side of the intersection.

Hanes was ejected from his pickup during the accident and trapped under the front of the vehicle, where he was located by emergency personnel responding to the scene. Hanes was airlifted to Parkview Memorial Hospital, Fort Wayne, where he was listed in fair condition this morning.

The conductor of the train, Josh M. Flinn, 26, of Fort Wayne, told police that he saw the pickup strike the train but couldn't tell if the vehicle was stopped at the time of the accident.

Police said that the train's headlight, horn and bell were all activated and operational when the accident occurred. No tire marks or signs of braking or an evasive action by Hanes were noted at the scene, but there were impact marks in the pavement at the point of contact, according to an accident report.

Damage to Hanes' pickup is estimated at $5,000 to $10,000.

When officers were nearly done at the scene of that accident, they were then called back north, to a two-car collision at the intersection of Ind. 15 and CR 1350N, near Milford.

There, at least one person was reported trapped in a vehicle and three people were injured.

Patti A Thomas, 30, of Lakeville, suffered an unspecified injury and was treated at Kosciusko Community Hospital and later released.

Thomas was the driver of a car which witnesses told police pulled into the path of a car driven by Lynn L. Pritchard, 64, of Woodburn. Pritchard and an unnamed passenger in her car were taken to Goshen General Hospital for treatment of unspecified injuries. [[In-content Ad]]