INDIANAPOLIS, Ind. (IUSTV News) – An Indiana State Trooper was badly hurt after being hit by a car along Interstate 65 in Indianapolis Saturday night.
Leaders with the Indiana State Police (ISP) say Trooper Azariah Keith was helping a stranded motorist with a flat tire on the left shoulder of south I-65. A second trooper responded to the area to help with traffic control and was blocking the left lane before where the stranded vehicle was.
ISP says just as Trooper Keith finished the tire change, a car driven by Armaandeep Singh, 22, was approaching the area at “a high rate of speed,” and reportedly swerved around the trooper who was blocking the left lane and struck Trooper Keith and then his patrol vehicle.
Keith was taken to an Indy hospital and was last listed in stable but serious condition.
ISP says Singh was arrested on preliminary charges of operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated and causing serious bodily injury, but charges will be determined by the Marion County Prosecutor’s Office.
The southbound lanes of I-65 were closed for nearly three hours while the scene was processed.
In 2023, two Indiana State Troopers were killed along Indiana interstates, the first deaths for the agency since 2019.
On March 3, Master Trooper James Bailey was hit and killed while deploying stop-sticks on a fleeing suspect near Auburn, in northern Indiana.
Similarly, on June 28, Trooper Aaron Smith was hit and killed while assisting to stop a stolen vehicle on Ronald Reagan Parkway near the Indianapolis International Airport. Smith was deploying stop-sticks when the suspect vehicle struck him.
