Suspected intoxicated driver arrested after fleeing crash with state troopers on I-80

LAKE COUNTY, Ind. - A suspected intoxicated driver was arrested early Monday morning after fleeing the scene of a crash involving two Indiana State Police troopers who were investigating a separate accident on I-80.

Around 2:15 a.m., the state troopers were conducting field sobriety tests on a driver involved in a crash, with their patrol vehicles parked in the left lane and shoulder of the highway with their lights activated

A vehicle rear-ended one of the trooper's parked Dodge Charger, causing debris to hit the other state police vehicle near Calumet Avenue. The suspect vehicle fled the scene eastbound.

Indiana State Police later located the fleeing vehicle near the 3-mile marker, driving on three wheels with sparks flying. The vehicle struck the median and became disabled, at which point the driver, identified as 26-year-old Kyle C. Barbour, of Hammond, Indiana, fled on foot. 

Barbour then tried to enter a Hammond Fire Battalion Chief’s vehicle but was arrested after a brief chase across the highway.

Barbour was transported to the Lake County Jail and faces preliminary charges of operating while intoxicated, endangering a person, failure to report a crash, resisting law enforcement and reckless driving causing property damage.