A wrong-way driver heading north in the southbound lanes of Interstate 65 slammed head-on into an SUV near Seymour just after 2:30 a.m. Sunday, killing the driver of each vehicle and the 1-year-old boy riding in the back seat. The crash happened near the 48-mile marker in Jackson County, about one mile south of Seymour, and claimed three lives in total.
Indiana State Police identified the wrong-way driver as 51-year-old Theosco Middlebrooks of Louisville, who was behind the wheel of a 2005 Jeep Liberty, according to WDRB. He crashed head-on into a southbound 2023 Ford Escape driven by 31-year-old Alyssa Osborn of Scottsburg. Both Middlebrooks and Osborn were pronounced dead at the scene by the Jackson County Coroner's Office.
Osborn's 1-year-old son, Waylon, was riding in the rear seat and was properly secured in a child safety seat, per the same account. He was airlifted to Norton Children's Hospital in Louisville with critical injuries and later died there.
Investigators Point to Alcohol, Await Toxicology
Indiana State Police investigators believe alcohol use by Middlebrooks likely played a role in the crash, though official toxicology results confirming his level of impairment remain pending. The crash investigation is ongoing, and that pending lab work stands as the primary unresolved question in the case.
The wreck forced a four-hour closure of all southbound lanes of I-65 near Seymour, drawing responses from several agencies, per the same reporting. State troopers coordinated the crash reconstruction alongside local fire and sheriff's departments as the highway remained shut down overnight.
A Corridor With a Grim History
This is not the first time this stretch of I-65 in Jackson County has seen a fatal wrong-way collision. A wrong-way crash near Crothersville killed three people, according to WTHR. Jackson County has also seen other recent tragedies on the interstate, including a fatal four-car crash on May 30 that killed an 11-year-old boy and hospitalized three adults, as Hoodline previously reported.
Nationally, wrong-way driving has become a worsening problem on divided highways. Annual fatal wrong-way crashes nearly doubled between 2014 and 2023, climbing from 278 to 520 per year, according to research from the AAA Foundation for Traffic Safety. The same research found that occupants of vehicles traveling in the correct direction make up 41.1% of all deaths in these fatal wrong-way crashes, while wrong-way drivers account for 52.8% — a reminder of how little chance drivers like Osborn have to react in a high-speed head-on collision.
State Efforts to Curb Wrong-Way Entries
Wrong-way entries at interstate ramp interchanges can pose a serious safety risk. Wrong-way collisions can occur during early-morning hours, as Sunday's 2:30 a.m. crash illustrates. The Crothersville crash described above underscores the danger wrong-way collisions pose on Indiana's interstates.
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