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Last updated on Monday, June 15, 2015
(COLUMBUS) - A Dupont man and two children were killed Thursday afternoon in related crashes on Interstate 65 in Columbus.
According to Columbus Police Department Sgt. Matt Harris, the accident happened shortly after 4 p.m.
A motorcycle driven by 58-year-old Hunter D. Patton went into the median throwing off both Patton and his wife, 55-year-old Kathlene about three miles south of the Columbus exit. The motorcyclist was killed and his wife was taken to Columbus Regional Hospital.
Traffic was still backed up about an hour later, when an SUV driven by 55-year-old Kathy Scroggins of Commiskey drove into the rear of a semi-trailer just north of the Columbus exit. Two cousins in the vehicle were killed, 6-year-old Addison Engle from Seymour and 11-year-old Keegan Engle from Hayden.
The Bartholomew County Coroner says Keegan Engle was belted in the front passenger seat. His cousin Addison Engle was belted in, in the back seat.
Kathy Scroggins had taken one of the Engle children to see their mother, who was hospitalized with pregnancy complications had driven to Indianapolis and was returning home when the accident happened.
A third passenger, 6-year-old Brianna Reynolds, Scroggins' adopted daughter, was taken first to Columbus Regional Hospital and then flown to Riley Hospital for Children.
It took rescue workers nearly two hours to free Scroggins from the wreckage and she was taken to IU Methodist Hospital in Indianapolis.
Investigators don't know what caused her to accelerate into the back of the semi.
Traffic was backed up until 8 p.m.
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