For the police officer, the man’s body language was the giveaway. His combative stance and his abrupt hand movement hinted at the possibility of danger.A trucker died and another was injured in a crash Wednesday morning on U.S. 30 southeast of Columbia City.
Shortly after 9 a.m., a westbound tractor-trailer rig was stopped at a traffic light at U.S. 30 and Whitley County Road 300 East when a box truck rear-ended it, according to the sheriff’s department.
The driver of the box truck, James Dean Priest, 37, of Bay City, Mich., died at the scene.
The other driver, Thomas Dye of West Virginia, was taken to a hospital in Fort Wayne with a bruise on his forehead as well as chest and back pain.
For more than four hours after the crash, U.S. 30 was reduced to one lane and “heavily congested,” the department said.
