ISP: Northwest Indiana woman arrested after hit-and-run on interstate during ‘blizzard-like conditions’

PORTER COUNTY, Ind. — A Northwest Indiana woman is facing charges after Indiana State Police said she was impaired while driving Friday on the interstate in blizzard-like conditions.

ISP Sgt. Glen Fifield said the 32-year-old woman, of Chesterton, Indiana, tried to drive away after hitting a semi-truck on Interstate 94 while crews were cleaning up a hazmat situation in the eastbound lanes.

Troopers witnessed the crash and caught up with the woman a few miles away when she crashed into a ditch, Fifield said in a news release.

A trooper started an OWI investigation and Fifield said the woman refused to take a breath test. She was taken to a hospital to be checked out and a warrant for a blood draw was granted.

The woman was later booked into the Porter County Jail and preliminarily charged with operating while intoxicated with a prior conviction, operating while intoxicated endangerment, leaving the scene of a crash and operating while intoxicated, Fifield said.

The blizzard-like conditions and hazmat situation led troopers and the Indiana Department of Transportation to urge drivers not to travel on I-94 and in Northwest Indiana.