HAMMOND, INDIANA — A shoeless, axe-wielding New Jersey man attacked two semi-trucks on Interstate 80 in northwest Indiana Friday afternoon, puncturing a radiator and breaking a headlight on the first truck before a driver’s large dog chased him off, then striking a second truck miles down the road before leading police on a high-speed chase that ended when Lake County Sheriff’s deputies boxed his car in.
Indiana State Police responded around 4:30 p.m. on September 11 to the 1.9-mile marker on eastbound I-80 near Hammond after a female truck driver reported a black 2011 Volkswagen with Illinois plates driving erratically — brake-checking and cutting off semis. The Volkswagen stopped directly in front of her truck, forcing a complete stop, then reversed and nearly struck the truck. The driver, later identified as Ivan Savych, 29, of New Jersey, got out without shoes, carrying a long-handled axe with a leather blade cover, and began yelling incoherently before striking the truck’s grill and puncturing the radiator and breaking the driver’s side headlight. When Savych approached the cab, the driver’s large dog began barking loudly and Savych returned to his car and fled.
About 20 minutes later at 4:49 p.m., a second 911 call came in near the 5.4-mile marker at the Cline Avenue overpass. Savych had allegedly stopped in the roadway traveling around 10 mph. When the second truck driver tried to change lanes to avoid him, Savych swerved in front and stopped completely. He got out and struck the front of the second semi with the axe before fleeing again.
A trooper spotted the Volkswagen shortly after and activated lights and sirens. Savych accelerated from 16 mph to 60 mph and then up to 80 mph before Lake County Sheriff’s deputies boxed the vehicle in and stopped it. Savych was uncooperative and did not speak English.
He was booked into the Lake County Jail. On September 12 the Lake County Prosecutor formally charged Savych with one felony count of resisting law enforcement, two misdemeanor counts of criminal vandalism, and a traffic infraction for expired plates.
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