A charity motorcycle ride on an Indiana freeway abruptly ended when a car cut between riders, setting off a chain-reaction crash that injured six people, officials said.
Motorcyclists were participating in the annual Helping Heroes Freedom Ride 465, which encircles Indianapolis on Interstate 465, event organizers said.
“Our mission is to provide hospitalized veterans with basic needs and wants for them and their families … (and) provide direct funding and services to meet the needs of service members and their families during time of deployment,” the group said on Facebook.
Around 2:11 p.m. Saturday, Indiana State Police dispatchers started getting calls about multiple motorcycles down on westbound Interstate 70 just west of downtown Indianapolis.
Trooper Dan Magnabosco arrived and found two people “with very serious injuries,” Indiana State Police said in a statement.
“He noticed one person was bleeding profusely from the lower arm and he immediately applied a tourniquet to the arm to stop the bleeding,” state police said. “Another person was unconscious but breathing.”
Magnabosco and several bystanders gave emergency aid until the Indianapolis Fire Department arrived. Six people were taken by ambulance to area hospitals, including two with serious injuries and four with non-life-threatening injuries, police said.
The westbound lanes of I-70 were closed during the crash investigation.
The chain reaction crash started when a white passenger vehicle cut in between the riders, Indiana State Police said.
A motorcyclist tried to avoid the car, which caused the rider to strike another motorcycle, police said.
Two other riders put their motorcycles down to try to avoid the crash. Two of the crashes involved a single motorcycle, and one involved two motorcycles that collided.
The white car never stopped at the scene, police said. Anyone who may have witnessed the crash is asked to call the Indiana State Police at 317-899-8577.
The affected stretch of I-70 has since reopened.
Event organizers said next year’s Helping Heroes Freedom Ride will no longer take place on an interstate.
“We are truly sad about the accidents … We do not have an update on the injured riders, but we will keep them in our prayers,” the group posted on Facebook Saturday.
“We try and keep our ride as safe as possible with an escort for this event. We cannot prevent accidents, but we will try and continue to make the ride as safe as we can,” the group wrote.
“We will be changing the route for next year and keeping the ride off the interstate. We want all of our riders and supporters to enjoy the event but most importantly make it home safe.”