PIERCETON – One person is dead following a semi tractor-trailer crash Friday along U.S. 30, just east of Pierceton. Kosciusko County Coroner Michael Wilson identified the victim late Friday night as Mark Phillip Sikorski, 45, Kenosha, Wis. Wilson stated that a scheduled autopsy is planned for today at the Northeast Indiana Forensic Center, Fort Wayne, for actual cause of death. Wilson also advised that required legal blood toxicology might also extend the actual time of final determination. Officers and emergency personnel responded at 12:23 p.m. Friday to a 911 call of a single-vehicle, semi tractor-trailer crash on U.S. 30, east of Ind. 13, according to a release from Kosciusko County Sheriff’s Department Public Information Officer Sgt. Chad Hill. Officers found the vehicle had crashed into and was still inside a vacant business. Sikorski was found deceased in the wreckage, the release states. Multiple fire departments arrived on scene and determined that due to structural concerns, the vehicle should be removed from the building before extricating the victim. A small dog was found alive inside the mangled semi cab, and was taken into safekeeping by Kosciusko County Animal Control. Kosciusko County Fatal Alcohol Crash Team stated that the initial investigation determined the semi truck was traveling westbound on U.S 30 when, for an unknown reason, it suddenly crossed into the median area, over the eastbound U.S. 30 lanes, and collided with the vacant business at 7659 E. U.S. 30, Pierceton. The crash is still under investigation, the release states. Kosciusko County FACT was assisted at the scene by the Pierceton Fire Department, Multi-Township EMS, Warsaw/Wayne Township Fire Territory, Winona Lake Fire Department, Pierceton Police Department, KCSD and the Indiana State Police and its Commercial Vehicle Enforcement Division.
