NOBLE COUNTY – Friday evening at approximately 5:00 p.m., State Troopers from the Fort Wayne Post and officers from the Noble County Sheriff’s Department responded to a three-vehicle crash on US33 at the intersection of County Road 200 North in Kimmel.
Senior Trooper Nick Meade’s preliminary investigation revealed that at the time of the crash traffic was stopped on southbound US 33 due to a vehicle waiting to turn east at the CR200N intersection. A witness observed a white Harley Davidson motorcycle passing the line of stopped southbound traffic on the right shoulder, and then being struck by a Chevy Tahoe that had turned west from northbound US33 onto CR200N.
The driver of that motorcycle, later identified as 36-year-old Shawn Patrick Loteckie, of Albion, IN, was ejected after that initial impact, and then hit another vehicle that was stopped on CR200N. Loteckie was pronounced dead at the scene by the Noble County Coroner.
The two other drivers involved were not physically injured in the crash. Although alcohol was not suspected as being a factor, the driver of the Chevy Tahoe was transported to a local area hospital to obtain a blood sample for chemical testing as part of the investigatory process required by law in all fatal crashes.
Notifications to Mr. Loteckie’s family were made last evening. This is an ongoing investigation.
