Third person dies after morning crash on US 30

10:00 A.M. UPDATE: Indiana State Police say all roads on U.S. 30 have reopened.

9 A.M. UPDATE: A third person has died as a result of injuries sustained in the crash, according to the Whitley County Sheriff’s Department.

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (Fort Wayne’s NBC) - According to police, two people are dead and three are in the hospital after a morning crash on U.S. 30 and West County Line Road.

Whitley County Sherriff Department says the crash happened just before 7 a.m. near the Allen and Whitley County border.

According to a Whitley County police report, a car, going east on U.S. 30, with five people inside, was hit by a semi turning south off the westbound lanes of U.S. 30. onto West County Line Road. The semi then hit two northbound vehicles that were stopped at the traffic light on West County Line Road.

Two people were pronounced dead at the scene. Three others in the same car were taken to Parkview Regional Medical Center in serious condition. One of the three was pronounced dead at the hospital. The victims were identified in the police report as the driver, James M. Hagwood, 50, from Plymouth, Sylvia Perales, 59, and Jesse L. Perales, 29, both from Warsaw. Joseph J. Drummond, 29, from Fort Wayne, and Jessica R. Craft, 36, from Silver Lake were listed in serious condition.

The driver of the semi, Thomas Stanely Leo Holt Clifford II, 34, from Rockford, Ohio, and the drivers of the stopped vehicles, Mabel Recinos, 34, from Fort Wayne, and Kenton L. Gibson, 34, from Woodburn were released at the scene.

The crash shut down eastbound U.S. 30 near the Steel Dynamics building. Police urged drivers to find an alternate route as officials investigated.

Eastbound travel was completely closed to traffic and backups formed on slow-moving westbound lanes of U.S. 30.

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