Deputies: Indy man dead after taking vehicle, running into traffic

Editor’s Note: This story has been updated

An Indianapolis man is dead after taking a car from a crash scene, wrecking it and then running into oncoming traffic Wednesday night on Interstate 65 near Edinburgh.

Bartholomew County deputies were called to the scene of a crash at about 9:21 Wednesday night in the southbound lanes of Interstate 65. But witnesses said that one of the people involved in the initial crash had taken a bystander’s vehicle and then drove off.

A deputy found the missing vehicle which had crashed about half a mile down the interstate. The driver ran from the scene, crossing the cable barrier in the median and then into oncoming traffic. That’s where he was hit and killed by a semi which was unable to stop in time.

The man has been identified as 39-year-old Cordell Jackson Jr. of Indianapolis. Bartholomew County Coroner Clayton Nolting says Jackson died from massive head injuries.

Deputies say that they don’t know why Jackson ran into the oncoming traffic.